Tumgik
#this is actually for a bigger fic / au that void and i have had in the works for ages (which i've actually posted some memes for lmao)
akuma-tenshi · 5 months
Text
Tumblr media
frederick kreiburg pissed off that a married man wears his wedding ring, more at 11
6 notes · View notes
Text
Hey, it's me, crawling back after being gone for a while 🥸. Unfortunately I've had to deal with a series of unfortunate events in my life. One of which was losing my notes (AGAIN) 😭. Soo in the attempt to try and get back into the swing of things, I'm gonna post some of my story wip ideas in hopes that it will motivate me enough to actually start writing again.
Note: I'm not including my Jimmy, Forrest, or Philip fics as those have already been started. This is just for wips of fics I only have minimal notes on right now.
Wolf fic
Wolf/Reader or OC
Found friends, unlikely friendship, wrong number, catching feelings for a stranger, dealing with grief
Summary: You're left with an empty hole in your soul after the loss of a great friend. A void that you attempt to fill as you reach out to find some kind of closure. Basically, you wrong dial/text Wolf. He humors you at first with responding, since he's bored and finds your messages entertaining enough to pass the time. But somewhere along the line feelings start to develop, even though he's never even seen your face. Most of this story takes place over messages and almost encounters.
Wolf fated mates fic
Wolf/OC or reader
Enemies-lovers, rivals-lovers, semi forced proximity (both are union members having to deal with union shi), fated mates au, no shifting, mate reveal at age 18, you know before he does, trying to be the bigger person is HARD
Summary of sorts: A member of the union under Yeo-Il. Think Donald's a huge ass but the pay can't be beat, even when having to deal with other union members like Wolf. Especially Wolf. Who you can't seem to get along with from the very first encounter. You both are basically water and oil having to coexist in the same space. But then you turn 18 a couple months before he does, and realize that destiny has played you for a fool, by making Wolf your fated mate. So now you're left trying to figure out what to do next.
Notes: was reading waay to many werewolf stories during the creation of this story idea 🙃
Donald fic
Donald/OC or reader
Oppites attract, aged up characters, both already in the workforce, forced proximity due to work, one night stand not staying a one night stand, very low spice (for now anyway), mostly just sexual tension, expanding on one of my oneshots
Summary-ish: A crazy night out with friends leads to an unexpected one night stand with a dangerous but handsome looking stranger. You check it off as a very delightful YOLO experience, never expecting to meet "what's his name" again. Until you find yourself sitting in a conference room, while your boss introduces the new business partner your company is doing a collaboration with. And if that wasn't awkward enough, you get voted to be the employee to spearhead the details of this new business merger.
Notes: this came about when I mentioned to someone about how cute it would be if Donald developed feelings for someone like the character in my karaoke crackfic. A very opposites attract that just happens to work despite their differences. Only for them to shot that idea down and state he would be better off with someone like one of their own OC's, who's more like him 😐🤨😮‍💨
Welp, challenge accepted I guess.
Jake 7 minutes in heaven fic
Jake/OC or reader
Quiet and reserved character meets popular and outgoing character, opposites attract, 7 minutes of heaven game, forced proximity due to game, aged up characters, college au, college frat party, fish out of water
Summary: You get dragged to some frat party by your more outgoing and social bestie, only to be left alone while they make out with some rando. While trying to blend in and look like you belong you end up getting paired up for a round of 7 minutes in heaven, and before you can even begin to protest, you end up locked in a closet with Jake Ji.
Notes: Haven't decided how spicy I want to make this one. Should I make it more suggestive in nature?  Or should I crank the spice level all the way up 🌶🔥😈
Alright. That's it. Now to wait for some motivation vibes to come and find me.
Tumblr media
Also, completely unrelated, but is it just me or have the porn bots uped their game while I've been m.i.a? Like not only are they "following" but now they're also liking posts? And not even locking their accounts, so when you click on the profiles you get an eyeful of "activity"! Like wut in the... left me completely shooketh.
8 notes · View notes
ninjagirlstar5 · 1 year
Text
Protag Teruya AU - Prologue Part 1 - The Cottage Intro
The cozy little cottage where nothing will go wrong. Nothing at all!
...Probably.
No TWs apply to this current post.
The Beach (The Beginning) |   The Mart (Part 2) | The Park (Part 3) | The Tower (Part 4) | The Boardwalk (Part 6) | The Beach Episode (Final)  
Prologe Part 2 Beginning
Disclaimer: While Sannotori is problematic, it’s a thing in this AU/fic and the dynamic is not the same as it is in canon.
The Protag Teruya AU was inspired by @/anotherprofessional’s post! Beware of Void spoilers though!
The inside of the cottage was much, much bigger than the outside made it out to be and a whole lot fancier too. There was a kitchen with various household goods, bookshelves with books of varying genres that he had to force himself away to focus on their investigation, a TV that was unfortunately stuck on static (dammit) and some cool chandeliers that Mikado claims to clash with the rest of the home’s interior. Personally, he didn’t think it was horrible, it just made it obvious that whoever owned this cottage - or even this entire island - had way too much money to know what to do with it. They were about to go upstairs when someone else came down it. It was another high school girl, with long wavy blonde hair with side bangs that reached her shoulders. She wore a white and blue school uniform, black knee-length boots, and a long gray fur coat that went well with her teal earrings, which also matched her eyes. She had a little bit of makeup on but it wasn’t overdone or anything, just some noticeable purple eyeshadow and maybe a bit of blush and lip gloss.
“Hmm? Oh, hello. You’re the wizard from the Monocruise, right? I never got your name.” The girl put her hand up against her cheek but she quickly realized he wasn’t alone. “And you found someone else?”
“Yeah. Ah, I, uh, don’t have a name right now…I have amnesia.” He explained and the girl’s eyes went wide.
“Huh? Amnesia?” She asked, and he reluctantly nodded his head.
“Yes.” Mikado spoke up. “Our classmate here can’t seem to remember anything from before he woke up on the island. Not even his name or talent. Ah, also, my name is Mikado Sannoji and as guessed, I’m the Ultimate Wizard.”
“Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Mikado.” She smiled at him before putting her hand down. “Like the both of you, I’m also a Hope’s Peak student. I’ve decided to take some time off from acting to focus on my studies. And, well, when I got that acceptance letter, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to go not as ‘famous actress Emma Magorobi’, but as your classmate, ‘Ultimate Actress, Emma Magorobi.’”
“Oh, you’re famous?” He blurts it out without thinking. Both blondes stared at him with wide eyes at his bluntness and he felt his cheeks turn red at embarrassment. “I-I mean, uh, well, I’m s-sure you are, it’s just, um…” And then, a nice sound cut him off.
The sound of laughter. Nothing mocking or derisive, but rather light and carefree.
“Ahaha, yes, I am. I’ve actually starred in quite a few movies as a child.” Emma said, smiling like a weight has been lifted off of her shoulder. “It truly is a pleasure to meet you both. And please don’t worry about it. I’d prefer it if you keep speaking to me casually. I’m here to focus on school, not flaunt my status as a celebrity.” She pauses before glancing at Mikado. “Although I did expect you to know who I was.”
“I’m afraid I’ve never watched any movies, Ms. Magorobi.” Mikado explained, which only made him tilt his head at him. He wondered why he didn’t recognize Emma. Or Melody Rhythm for that matter. He didn’t recognize them since he didn’t remember anything at all. But wouldn’t Mikado have identified them since they were good enough to be scouted out as Ultimates?
“You haven’t? Oh, then I have some recommendations!” Emma was eager to talk, although her smile was quick to turn awkward. “Not to, uh, come off as bragging or anything, but I’ve starred in the ‘Harry Peter’ series as Holly Queen. It’s about a fantastical world full of magic and a coming of age story for Harry, the title character himself. Perhaps you’ll like it, being a wizard yourself, Mikado!”
“Perhaps, but fiction does not always coincide with reality. And I’m saying that as the Ultimate Wizard.” Mikado pauses for a moment before his mask shifts into a more genuine smile. “Still, once we’re certain the situation is safe, perhaps it’d be nice to unwind. I’ll keep your recommendation in mind.”
“Speaking of that…Do you know why we’re here, Emma? Apparently today was our entrance ceremony.” He asked but Emma simply crossed her arms and looked to the side.
“Well…I’m not certain. I woke up here as well. I’m thinking it must be some sort of surprise party arranged by the school.” He slumps his shoulders.
“God, I hope so…This whole day has been an emotional rollercoaster.” He gritted his teeth, rubbing his forehead to try and relieve his stress. Mikado reaches over to pat his shoulder. But Emma smiled at him, calm as she reached her hands out before her.
“Mikado and our dear friend…You shouldn’t worry so much. Look at how beautiful and blue the sky is. Something good will happen, I just know it.” She closes her eyes, as if she was reminiscing on a good memory. He tried to force away the pang of jealousy weighing heavily on his heart. “Things that were lost, things that have happened, let us put it all behind us. We should simply be thankful for the world we live in now.”
“Now that’s just cheesy.” Mikado said, crossing his arms. While he wasn’t frowning or staring at her with exasperation, the tension in his shoulders were still palpable.
“H-Hey, uh…I think she has a point anyways. This could be worse, haha…” He really didn’t want to think about how this could get worse.
“Ahahaha, sorry.” Emma said, pressing her hand against her cheek again and smiled at them awkwardly. “That must have sounded strange. It must be the actor in me. Still, Mikado…” She crosses her arms, her smile turning polite but stern. “What did I tell you? I’d rather you speak casually to me.”
“Ah…Well, it’s not just you. I speak formally with everyone, Ms.…E-Emma…” The wizard quickly goes quiet. He can’t help but tilt his head, trying to examine his mask. He wondered if it could blush.
“Ah, well, close enough. I’m going to head out now. It doesn’t seem like there’s much more that can be accomplished by staying here.” Emma puts her arms down, giving them a brief wave. “Permanent amnesia or not, I do hope you come to a name you like and reintroduce yourself to everyone. Let’s talk later over some movies and tea!”
“Yeah, that sounds nice. Bye, Emma!” He waves at her and Mikado does the same. Emma smiled at the both of them as she left. “Huh…a celebrity.”
“Don’t look at me. I’ve never paid any attention to that kind of stuff.” Mikado said, rubbing the back of his head. He just shrugged in response before taking another step on the stairs.
“Well, it’d be cool to get to know her since we’re classmates-“
“Ah- look out!!”
“Huh- oof!” He turned around in time to feel someone fall into his chest. Mikado was by his side in a second, hovering over him to make sure he didn’t fall, which thankfully didn’t happen. And despite the sudden weight, the person was very light and he managed not to lose his balance as he held onto them. “Are you okay??”
“Augh, y-yeah…I can’t believe I tripped on the stairs.” The person, a girl who was very small in comparison to both him and Mikado, answered him with dizzy eyes. He put her down carefully and she quickly got her bearings. She was wearing a plaid beret with a matching smock, a white shirt with puffy long sleeves, a gray vest, a brown skirt and Mary Janes. Her brown hair was long with bangs and her side bangs were tied together with a ribbon and she stared up at him with pale green eyes. She blushed and then smiled, holding her sketchbook close to her chest. “O-Oh…newcomers! Hi!”
“Hello. You’re here from Hope’s Peak too, right?” He asked. The girl puts her sketchbook down, although she puts her hand back up to play with her hair.
“Yes! I’m the Ultimate Painter, Iroha Nijiue! I hope we can get along!” Iroha was all too happy to introduce herself and he smiled at her positive energy.
“It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Nijiue.” Mikado said, his mask changing into his usual smile. Iroha squeaks at the sight, a terrified look on her face. The wizard chuckles at her reaction, raising his hands. “Don’t be alarmed. My mask is simply for expressions, nothing more. For I am the Ultimate Wizard, Mikado Sannoji!” To prove his point, he makes a quick ice cube appear in his hand.
“Wh-Whoa…really? An Ultimate Wizard…” Iroha’s eyes widen, still fearful but otherwise astonished at the fact that magic is real. Suddenly, her eyes shine bright like lights. “Ooo, do you think you can make me a wizard too??”
“Hm…I don’t know. It’ll take a lot of power…” He breaks the ice cube in his hand as his face suddenly darkens. “And a price of your soul.”
“My soul?!” The painter’s jaw dropped and her face paled. The amnesiac’s face must be similar to hers because he couldn’t believe what he just heard. Iroha then turns her back on him and he can feel the gloom radiating off of her. “On second thought, I think I’ll stick to painting…”
“Fuhuhuhu, I’m afraid power like mine doesn’t come free.” He laughed as if he didn’t just admit something so horrifying at the drop of a hat. Seriously, why would he trade such power for his soul? “Even if you only want to ‘try’ it, you’ll have to give something up in exchange. There is no turning back once you start.” Iroha shudders, any interest she had in magic dissipating with the thought of giving something up. She eventually recovers enough to turn around.
“Nope, not gonna think about it. Instead, let’s think positive!” The painter turns her attention to him with a smile. “What about you? What’s your name?”
“Uh, sorry. I don’t know. I have amnesia.” He explained. Hopefully he doesn’t have to keep doing this soon. He should at least come up with a name to go by until he finds his real name or something he liked better.
“Huh?” Iroha stared at him with wide eyes. It looked like it didn’t completely register what that meant until a moment later. “Eeeeh? You lost your memory? That’s awful! And it’s our first semester and everything!” She sweats for a bit…only to bounce back a smile. “But don’t worry! Think positively! Your memories will definitely come back! Even if they don’t, you can just replace them with the happy memories you can make with us!”
“That’s…” He hesitates. And yet, if his amnesia is permanent, the only way he can recover is by making new memories, right? Even if he still had a past he didn’t know about that was attached to himself, he won’t be getting those experiences back if his memory loss is permanent. And there’s nothing wrong with making happy memories with new friends, right…? He smiles. “You’re really cheerful, you know that right?” Iroha gave him a wider grin.
“Ms. Nijiue, do you know anything about our situation?” Mikado moves the conversation along. Iroha holds up her sketchbook.
“Oh, you mean the island and all? Well, naturally I was upset to find out we’re in the middle of nowhere…” Iroha said, before tilting her head and giving them another smile. “But it’s times like these where staying positive is more important than ever. Like, it’s the first day on a beautiful island with brand-new friends! Of course I’m cheerful!”
“...So, in other words, you don’t know why we’re on this island either.” Mikado almost sounded disappointed. He noticed it but Iroha didn’t.
“Yeah, but don’t worry too much. Maybe if we wait long enough, the teachers or somebody else will contact us.” The painter then started walking down the stairs. “I’m gonna go see some other friends! See ya later!” She runs off.
“...Well, she’s quick to claim everyone as friends.” Mikado said, his mask flattening. “It’s honestly concerning how positive she is. It’s a bit…much.”
“Well…I think it’s nice that she’s trying her best to see the silver lining to all this.” He could feel Mikado rolling his eyes, even when his mask didn’t convey it at all. “Well, wanna check what’s upstairs?”
“We might as well.” Mikado walked up the stairs and he followed suit. The upstairs didn’t have anything interesting, unfortunately. Even when he recognized when a room looked like a party room or an office, it was mostly empty with nothing to make note of. There was also a balcony but there was no one there so after a brief moment of respite for the both of them gazing out over the sea, they eventually left the cottage altogether.
5 notes · View notes
safarigirlsp · 2 years
Note
How do you feel about adding Serge from Megalopolis to your roundup? (Personally, I'm not going super crazy over the pics and the little bit I've read about his character, but I suppose it'll depend on how he's revealed in the movie.)
Hi and thank you for your message!
I was seriously excited when the Megalopolis news dropped. Francis Ford Coppola made the sexiest Dracula movie ever and even managed to make Gary Oldman kind of hot! I assumed he would make AD smoldering hot! I even read the script myself and although I wasn’t blown away, I thought it could be fun and had potential. I even like the name Serge. And I definitely love and prefer anti-heroes, villains, and bastards!
It was a bad day for me when those pics of that absolutely hideous hair dropped. Omg I was and am so pissed about it! What a fucking travesty to butcher AD’s hair like that - a man who has some of the best hair out there. It’s criminal. It’s like one of my best friends has said — Paul Giamatti exists and he’s a superb actor, so if you want someone who looks fugly but can act, get someone who’s fugly and can act! Don’t get one of the hottest men in the world and turn him into Paul Giamatti!
I personally only like men with good hair that is at least on the longer side and facial hair, both in actors and in real life. Almost without exception, short hair and clean shaven is a no-fly zone for me, along with blondes, redheads, and small men 🤣 There are exceptions, of course! But the super short Serge cut is an absolute turnoff for me. I just can’t. There is nothing he could do to redeem himself into being attractive to me short of getting a makeover. I might like the movie and the character, that remains to be seen, and I actually assume I might. But he’s very very unattractive to me. Like White Noise, I actually liked the movie quite a lot, but I’m very not into Jack as an object of attraction lol. If anyone else is into them, that’s awesome and more power to you! But it’s not my thing.
I’m so so happy for and excited by 65! I’m absolutely adding Mills to my lineup and I already have a couple things in the works for him and a bigger story planned. I’m also working on a fun AU for one of my friends who made an AD edit that looks like Cruella DeVille and asked for a thing with him 🤣 After 65 though, it looks like I’m in for a long drought of characters I find hot and am excited by.
As of January 1, I dropped Clyde, Henry, and Charlie from my lineup because I’m just so much more into Jacques and Flip, and I know I’m going to be obsessed with Mills. For the foreseeable future, I’ll be keeping my lineup to them and Kylo AUs. I’ll have my plate full with those four for anything I try to write this year. I also just enjoy writing them the most. And some other guys may show up for cameos here and there or as specials for friends!
My lineup was starting to look like this for a while 🤣
Tumblr media
I’ve really been losing steam with the fic business just because it seems like there are much more meaningful and productive things I could and should be doing with my time. I have a novel I’m finishing and another crank out this year, so those definitely take priority, but I’ve generally enjoyed splitting it up with fics. I’ve literally written over a million words in fiction since 2020, and I go back and forth as to whether or not its been worth it or just a pathetic waste of time and cry for help 🤣 It feels like throwing it out into a void a lot of the time. However, at least it’s been good practice, which is why I’ve kept it up!
If you are into or get into Serge, I’m sure there will be plenty of fics out there for him! I expect him to be one of the more popular guys in fics going forward. If you get into Mills, I’ll definitely be your guy for him!
Sorry, that was an overly long-winded answer to your question! Talk about obnoxiously over-sharing 🤣
3 notes · View notes
sooibian · 3 years
Text
So Let's Runaway - Prologue
Tumblr media
photocreds @tuanzie​
Pairing: Kyungsoo x Fem!Reader ft. bff!Chanyeol
Genre / Themes: Fluff, mild angst, travel AU, road trip through Spain, travel buddies Chansoo!
Warnings: Themes of grief / loss, heartache, toxic relationships, strong language, i guess..
Description: An unlikely group of three comes together for the journey of a lifetime.
A/N: This fic is part of @supermwritersnet​ “Around the world in 31 days event”. Inspired by the Hindi movie Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Uploading prematurely so as to stop obsessing over the prologue and get cracking on the travelogue which requires a tonne of research. Let me know if you’d like a tag on the upcoming chapter(s) due for upload on 19th July 2021.
Word Count: 3k *unedited*
____________________________
Doh Kyungsoo had dragged his feet up the endless flight of stairs seeking solitude...not drama.
A stranger, just one misstep away from a fatal fall, was the last thing he’d expected to find on the rooftop of Seoul’s Park Hyatt at three in the morning. He slipped the rooftop access key card (that he’d borrowed from the security guard in exchange for a 50,000 won bill) in the back pocket of his trousers while simultaneously dwelling on the depths of the rot of corruption. He had half a mind to turn away and forget that he’d just seen someone contemplating their existence on the ledge of a highrise but there was something about you that rooted him to the spot. Dressed in fine evening wear, you’d stretched your arms out like wings as you looked up at the vast expanse of midnight blue, the wind kissing your wild, waist length hair. From his standpoint, you looked oddly at peace.
Kyungsoo had never been an idealist or a victim of the white knight syndrome. He wasn’t one to delve into the ethical and philosophical conundrums for most things in life because to him it was all just a waste of time. Seeing you on the parapet filled him with neither sympathy nor worry. It was your life after all and with it you could do whatever you deemed fit as long as you weren’t inconveniencing others. Scratch that.
As long as you weren’t inconveniencing him.
But right now, unbeknownst to you, you were inconveniencing Seoul’s hottest financial broker, Doh Kyungsoo.
He wasn’t invisible to the hotel’s security cameras and being labelled suspect in an abetment to suicide investigation wasn't exactly what he was looking for after the day he’d had. Albeit inebriated and heavy-eyed, he could effectively calculate the logistics involved in pulling you off the ledge with the cacophony of the omnipresent Seoul traffic drowning out the sound of his footsteps.
Bracing himself for superficial bruises from the impact of falling to the right side of the precipice with the weight of an adult human pressing down on his 173 cm high frame, he took off his custom tailored blazer (that had been flown in from Vietnam especially for that evening) and folded it in half, making sure that the lapels touched. Some habits are hard to shake. He put the blazer on the ground as a makeshift floorcloth for the rest of his belongings. With his back facing you, he allowed himself a moment's peace as he loosened his tie, languidly rolled the sleeves of his pristine white dress shirt up to his elbows, freed himself off the Rolex Cellini on his left wrist, his Bottega Veneta fine leather wallet, and the cursed Tiffany Blue Box that he simply couldn’t bear to look at anymore and neatly placed them all on the blazer.
Letting out a deep exhale, he muttered curses under his breath before turning to your silhouette only to find it...gone.
Kyungsoo’s eyes narrowed and then immediately grew into large circles as he grappled with the shocking turn of events. An inexplicable heaviness bloomed in his chest and he felt sick to the stomach which, in a state of denial, he chalked up to the dubious mixture of spirits he’d downed not too long ago.
Before he could find his bearings and figure out what to do next, a light tap on his shoulder made him jump. His jaw went slack and his heart threatened to leap out of his chest to find you casually smiling at him. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to climb onto the very same ledge and scream into the void but he simply stood there, mouth agape, wanting to say a million things but he could hardly muster a peep.
Reading the confusion painted across his sharp, well defined features, you uttered an unsure, “Hi?”
“I thought you’d jumped,” he whispered, head tilted to the side, his compelling, bloodshot eyes locked with yours.
“Says someone who’s unusually jumpy,” you jested, but your expression immediately turned solemn when you caught the tremble in his right hand. “Are you on something?”
There came about a sudden shift in his aura. Hands on hips, he deadpanned, “Why? Are you with the cops?”
“No, don’t worry,” you let out a soft chuckle and he started scrambling for his things, “How long have you been standing here?”
Hastily stuffing everything into the pocket of his well fitted trousers, he muttered something along the lines of ‘Chaos. Just chaos everywhere!’
Leaning into his frame, you quipped, “What’s that?”
Alarmed and goggle-eyed, he snapped, “Nevermind,” and turned towards the exit.
“Hey! You seem to have forgotten something!” You called out after him upon finding his blazer on the ground, the silken sheen of it reflecting a myriad of citylights.
No answer.
“I wasn’t going to jump!” You yodelled childishly but the man was long gone.
.
.
.
Seven Hours Earlier
“Natasha -” Kyungsoo huffed.
The feather light Tiffany 1873 Blue Box in his left hand had suddenly started to feel like a giant boulder weighing down on his entire being. The sparkle of the uncut diamond reflected in his misty eyes as her uncharacteristically stoic silence left him struggling for words. He searched Natasha’s face for a hint of mischief...he so desperately wished for her to crack a sly smile and pull him in for a kiss and whisper ‘Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!’ against his lips like they do in the movies, that he’d almost started to imagine it. It had to have been some sort of an ugly prank.
What reason does she have to turn me down? he wondered.
Kyungsoo breached the uncomfortable spell of silence with a desperate plea, “Say something!” the throbbing in his head intensifying by the second.
Did these three years mean nothing to you? What did I do wrong? Do you hate the ring? Is this not the kind of proposal you wished for? Is it because I left the bathroom lights on all night? Or is it because I forgot to wish your mother on her birthday? A flurry of questions spawned in Kyungsoo’s mind only to die at the tip of his tongue.
“I’m sorry, Kyungsoo, but I can’t do this. I just -” Natasha spoke finally. Gingerly shifting the weight of the box onto the ebony restaurant table, she slammed it shut as if the ring had been eyeing her lecherously.
Meeting Kyungsoo’s gaze almost defiantly, she declared, “Kyungsoo, I don’t think that I could be the kind of wife that would make you happy and I don’t think you could make me happy either.”
.
.
.
Two Weeks Later
Setting your eyes on that distinct pair of Dumbo ears, you excitedly weaved through the peak hour coffee shop crowd with an Iced Americano held firmly in one hand. Slamming the beverage down on the table, you engulfed his giant frame in a back hug and squealed, “Park Chanyeol!”
His wide eyes turned into even bigger brown circles and his mouth rounded into an ‘o’ in surprise. Grinning, he got off the uncomfortably tiny coffee shop chair and wordlessly pulled you in for what was famously known in Uni as a ‘Classic Chanyeol Hug’. You didn’t know how much you missed it until you felt your worries immediately dissipate into nothingness.
He hugged you a little tighter the moment you started to pull away before taking your hands in his and stooping down to your eye level. “Shifu, my love! You’re back in Seoul?!” Chanyeol exclaimed with all the love in the world sparking in the depths of his dark eyes.
Even after all this time, it felt as if nothing had changed….you’d suddenly been whizzed into a not-so-distant ‘Gothic architecture and coffee shops’ past in which a cotton candy haired boy, dressed in a pair of freshly ironed beige chinos and a plain white tee, smiles his sweetest smile simply at the sight of you. Chanyeol always felt like home. Funnily enough, even more so at the moment.
Giving him a good natured smile, you nodded in response, albeit cringing a little on the inside. Having been President of the martial arts club back in the days, you got stuck with an ingenious moniker “Shifu” which you clearly couldn’t shake off even after half a decade since graduation. You did a double take when your gaze veered to acknowledge the person seated opposite Chanyeol who, dressed in an ivory business suit, almost blended into the background. Just the way you could spot Chanyeol’s ears from a million miles away, you could recognize those eyes anywhere and right now they were shooting daggers at you.
“OH! Hi!”
His response to your greeting was a curt nod accompanying a vague hand movement, something between a hi and a failed facepalm.
At this Chanyeol guffawed, “You two know each other?”, his keen gaze rapidly flitting between the two of you.
“Yes -”
“No -”
While gesturing you to take a seat at their table, Chanyeol slumped into his chair and pursued the conversation in a voice laced with amusement, “So which is it?”
You gave your head a little shake, signalling Chanyeol to drop the topic since his friend had made his apprehension quite evident with an unambiguous “No” when asked if he knew you. Which...wasn’t entirely untrue. Even though Chanyeol now seemed to be on the same page as you, for good measure, you deflected his question with a polite, “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”
“Absolutely not!” Chanyeol assured, deftly steering the conversation back to you, “We could actually use your advice on something but first, Shifu, look at you! How long has it been? Five years?”
“Five years!”
“Wahhh! What brings you back to Seoul?”
With a wistful smile, you answered, “Appa passed away in April...”
“Oh, I’m- I’m so sorry -” stuttered Chanyeol, immediately placing his hand on your arm and giving it a light squeeze. From the corner of your eye you noticed Chanyeol’s friend chewing on his bottom lip and listening to this exchange with rapt attention.
“No, no, it’s erm...we’re doing okay now, I guess-”
It had been two and a half months but every time you talked about it, a black hole burgeoned right in the middle of your chest, sucking you within itself and rendering you breathless. You still hadn’t picked up the art of condoling the “condoler”. What were you even supposed to say to the faultless “I’m sorry”? Who came up with condolence jargon, anyway?
“I’m sorry we haven’t been in touch - ”
“Oh, please. You know how it is after Uni, isn’t it,” you turned to Chanyeol’s friend to make him feel a little less left out, “what did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t,” he answered in a clipped tone while mindlessly scrolling through his phone.
“Yah!” Chanyeol chastised him with a deathly glare before continuing with an impish smile, “He’s Doh Kyungsoo.”
“Ah! So he’s Doh Kyungsoo! I’ve heard a great deal about you!” Your enthusiasm invoked a quick cursory smile from him. Doh Kyungsoo had apparently made it his life’s mission to make this unexpected rendezvous as icky as possible, leaving you to wonder if Chanyeol had ever discussed your brief relationship with him. Ex-girlfriend meets best friend? Not an ideal scenario in any part of the world.
Chanyeol and you had gone out for a couple of weeks towards the end of freshman year until you both realized that you were much better off as friends. Despite being joined at the hip in Uni, the two of you had gone your separate ways after post-grad. While he returned to Seoul to join the family business, you’d stayed back in Milan to explore job opportunities. Messages and phone calls became few and far between and it wasn’t long before both of you had completely lost touch with each other.
And it wasn’t until you met him again that you realized how desperately you needed a friend considering everything that had been going on in your life. You selfishly wished for Kyungsoo to leave you two to catch up on all these years spent apart but clearly that was a lot to ask considering how tacitly territorial he seemed to be getting about Chanyeol.
“So what was it that you wanted to talk about?” you asked in another feeble attempt to water down the rancour.
Chanyeol’s features flared into a bashful smile but the moment he opened his mouth to speak, Kyungsoo held a hand up to him and insisted, “Allow me to spare you the blushes,” before starting to explain the situation in an uncharacteristically eager tone, “This idiot is getting married in three months -”
Boisterously thumping Chanyeol’s back, you showered him with congratulations which he accepted with a shy ‘thank you.’
Kyungsoo continued, “- and we have a road trip planned for next month. As per the pact -”
Head tilted to the side, you shot, “What pact?”
“Some stupid pact that I have no memory of - ”
“That you conveniently have no memory of!” interrupted a salty Chanyeol.
Kyungsoo grimaced. Rubbing the corner of his eye, he continued with a heavy sigh, “It was supposed to be the three of us...Chanyeol, me, and our school friend Yixing.”
“Oh, okay?”
“So Yixing fell off a tractor and broke his back -”
“Oh, my gosh!” You exclaimed.
Kyungsoo’s mouth fell open. “I wasn’t there but I’d bet my ass that’s exactly what he said at the time.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nothing.”
“Wait, wait, slow down, why- how- a tractor?”
“He quit his CEO position to become a full time….farmer,” deadpanned Kyungsoo as if it was the stupidest thing Yixing could’ve done which rubbed you up the wrong way and coloured your otherwise neutral expression.
“He basically did what Kyungsoo doesn’t have the balls to do,” quipped Chanyeol, lips stretched into a gremlin-like grin. Kyungsoo returned his jibe with a strike to his arm causing him to let out a dramatic wail thus inviting the attention of everyone around you.
But none of it deterred Kyungsoo. He continued nonchalantly as if presenting a well crafted business proposal, “Since one of us is unavailable it only makes sense to postpone the trip and that’s exactly what I’ve been asking Chanyeol to do but he just won’t listen.”
“You’re getting married in three months and you’re taking this road trip next month. Will you be left with enough time for wedding planning?” you reasoned with Chanyeol, well aware of the kind of family he belonged to and the kind of weddings these families planned.
“Mr. Park here was way too eager,” Kyungsoo butted in.
“Shut up, Kyungsoo!”
“Wahhh you must really love her ~ ,” you sang, moon-eyed.
“Clearly. He couldn’t even wait for the rest of us to finish singing the birthday song for his Eomma.”
“What?”
“Yeah! He popped the question to Aera right in the middle of it.”
“WHAT!”
“That’s a story for another day,” replied Chanyeol in an atypically calm tone, “but you’re right, Shifu, it’s not enough time and that’s why I’ve been asking this idiot to just -”
“All reservations are for three. It logistically makes more sense to reschedule,” declared Kyungsoo with a hint of finality in his tone.
It didn’t. It definitely didn’t make more sense to reschedule but as gullible as Chanyeol was, he said nothing to counter Kyungsoo’s illogical argument.
“Are you sure your friend Yixing would be okay with it, Yeollie? I’m sure you can wait for him to get better and -”
Firmly setting his jaw, Chanyeol looked you square in the eyes and stated, “It's now or never.”
Kyungsoo stole a glance at you and cleared his throat, hesitance betraying his voice when he spoke again, “Chanyeollah, you’re only getting married stop talking like you’re terminally ill.”
Chanyeol's expression softened to convey an implicit plea causing you to tweak your suggestion, “The two of you can still go? I’m sure Yixing won’t mind.”
But Chanyeol hit you with an unexpected proposal. He asked, “Do you want to come?”, in a tone that was way too serious for a road trip.
“What? No!”
“Why not? You’re here and - “
“- and Yixing’s not,” interrupted Kyungsoo.
Ignoring the sarcasm in Kyungsoo’s voice, you turned Chanyeol down gently, “No, Yeol, it’s just- it doesn’t make sense, bub.”
“Why not? We leave in a month and that’s plenty of time to get all your travel docs in order -”
“Travel docs? You mean….insurance?” You asked hesitantly.
“Yeah! Insurance...you won’t need a visa, though.”
“Visa? Yeah, obviously I won’t be needing a visa. Why would I need a visa for a road trip?”
Chanyeol slapped his forehead and wondered aloud, “Oh, shoot! We didn’t tell her, did we?”
Kyungsoo gave his head a little shake, prompting you to ask, “Tell me what?”
“It’s a road trip through uhhh northeastern Spain -”
Chanyeol’s elaborate account of the itinerary was drowned in the whirlpool of emotions that erupted within you at the mention of the country. That part of your life you had locked away in the deepest, darkest corners of your consciousness now stared you straight in the eyes, forcing you to acknowledge a reality far too jarring for your fragile state of mind. You took a sip of your long forgotten beverage to centre yourself but it didn’t take a genius to know that something was up.
Placing a hand on your head, he asked softly, “What is it, Shifu? I understand if you can’t leave Eomma alone at this point...”
“It’s not Eomma,” you took another sip of the drink to fight the lump in your throat, “Eomma is - Eomma is in Bucheon, visiting her sister. For I don’t know how long but...long.”
“Is it work?” contributed Kyungsoo.
“I quit my job,” you answered and he looked at you as if you, a total stranger, had just asked him his body count.
Chanyeol took your hand in his and reiterated, “Come, then? You need this.”
Your gaze bounced between the two men who wore the exact same expression in expectation of two entirely different answers. And whatever you chose to say next, you were sure to disappoint one of them.
Eyes unfocussed, a deafening ringing echoing in your ears, you declared softly, “I need this,” with a million unpleasant scenarios running through your head, making you sick to the stomach.
Chanyeol pulled you in for a bear hug. Kyungsoo rolled his eyes and let out a deep, disappointed sigh.
101 notes · View notes
ohmy7hearts · 3 years
Text
spring gale
Summary: Spring means new beginnings but a gale (a storm more like?) in the name of Shinazugawa Sanemi blows your plans out and throw your once peaceful life into the winds.
Pairings: Shinazugawa Sanemi x Fem!Reader // future Shinazugawa Genya x SisterFigure!Reader 
A/N: this,,, is v impromptu. i literally got out of my bed bc it has been bugging me with how little sanemi fanfics there are, esp modern aus. tbh, there have been plenty of fics brewing in my mind and tell me if there’s any you’d be interested in and maybe i will return from my hiatus hah:
 - zhongli modern au: adepti babies being your adopted children and navigating parenthood 
- unknown pairing as of now but travelers being your kids so transporting yourself into the world to find them after 500+ years of not returning home 
- etc involving atsumu, diluc, childe but if you have any requests, feel free to drop it in and maybe i’ll consider them
Warnings: Some cursing (I mean it’s Sanemi lolol)
“Shinazugawa-san?” Sanemi glanced up, his hands continued packing away his things into the bag, an eyebrow raised. You smiled, hands folded over the other in front of you, as you continued to speak after gaining his attention. “When would you be free to do the project?”
He sighed, throwing his bag over his shoulder, while making his way out of the classroom - tone and body language showing his disinterest in the conversation. “We can just do it in class.”
You jogged to get into step next to him, “Well, it is for the bare minimum. I’m sure we can do much better than that.” You observed his side profile to see if any emotion could give way to what he was thinking. You frowned, frustration creeping up on you, “I understand that we’re not each other’s first choice in partners but that’s not an excuse to not do our best.”
“Are grades and studying the only thing in that airhead of yours?” His eyes flit towards yours for a moment before returning its gaze forward. “I don’t fucking have as much free time as you.”
You stopped following him. A bolt of anger and disbelief had your mouth dropping and hands curling into shaking fists. You scoffed, voice raising with each word, “I believe you need this more than me, Shinazugawa-san. Unless you want to continue being a pain in everyone’s ass and eventually not even graduate, then be my guest.” 
He swiveled towards you. You flinched reactively. He faltered, face momentarily flitting from anger to surprise back to annoyance the moment his eyes scanned you. One step, two steps. He was in your space, breathing in and out to you, with his  strikingly cold eyes and thin eyebrows furrowed. “Say that again, I dare you.”
You closed your eyes before releasing a deep sigh, muscles easing from the hold of your anger. “We don’t have to do it after school or on the weekends if you are that occupied. We can do it before school or during our breaks and even before our clubs start.” You grabbed one of his wrist, turning his palm upwards, shoving the crumpled paper with your number into it while fixating your glare on him throughout. You refuse to back down but you will be the bigger person. Forcing his hand to a close, you narrowed your eyes for good measure while trying to control the smirk from overtaking your face when his frown further deepened in distaste. Taking a step back, your hands returned to the usual folded stance, you forced an amicable smile to replace the smirk - although you have a feeling that he could still see the smirk from how his eye twitched, “Of course, it’s really up to you, Shinazugawa-san.”
Turning on your heel, you headed back to the classroom with your head held high and a full-blown smirk on your face while your peers watched with stolen glances and whispers behind hands or under breaths. The clicking of his tongue echoed in the corridor and in your head all the way back to the classroom. 
“Ara, ara, should you really do that (Y/N)-chan?” Shinobu greeted you by your desk, eyes filled with mirth from the free entertainment.
You laughed airily, eyes not meeting hers but focused on clearing the messy table, “I wouldn’t have to if he wasn’t that difficult.” 
“Not many survive Sanemi you know?” Shinobu followed you to the student council room. “One must use their life's worth of luck to crawl out from his bad side.” 
A bark of a laugh escaped you from her exaggeration. “Shinobu-chan ~ I thought you wanted to get into medicine and not theatrics?”
Her eyes met yours, a smirk tugging on her lips, eyes shifting precariously into ones when she knew something the other party doesn’t and in this case that was you. A shiver ran down your spine. You’ve been in the spot only a few times but still a few too many with most of them ending up jerking your view of the world down a path you’ve never considered. You gulped, hands itching and playing with themselves. 
“Did you not hear about how he got into a fight with some university boys down at the park?” She leaped into your space, voice dropping into a whisper in your ear yet head tilted to ensure a front seat view to your reaction. “He came out with a couple of scratches and bruises but…” Her small hands encircled your upper arm. Your eyes dropping to them before returning to her face - surprised to witness your shock colouring your face white as it was reflected in those big eyes of hers. “The boys said to be much bigger than he is, had to go to the hospital.” Her smile bordering on unhinged glee, she drawled, “They were so scared they didn’t sue him.”
She immediately returned to her spot beside you, a foot away, while her shoulders and arms lifted in a form of a shrug nonchalantly. “Apparently, when questioned, the boys said something about them being the ones out of line and they have worked things out.” 
Being close friends with Shinobu and Mitsuri meant that you were privy to the latest gossip and news but you always took it with a grain of salt seeing firsthand how some things were purposefully voided or added for the enjoyment of teenagers. You smiled unsurely, “that’s just a rumour Shinobu-chan.”
She pouted, invisible to those who didn't know her well enough or who weren’t keen enough, “You can ask Akio. He was a witness.”
Your eyes widened before blinking in incredulity. “What.”
She giggled, hand raising in a wave before dashing down the corridor. “Do share with me if he tells you more!” 
It took you a few seconds to regain your bearings, even a shake of your head to rid the mental image of Sanemi punching away on people bigger than him for his amusement. He was by no means a small person shown clearly with the muscles seen even through the school uniform - a testament to his achievements as one of the greatest fighters in the taekwondo club despite his lacklustre participation of actually attending said club practices - but there were certainly bigger and taller people in your school, much less university. 
“Hashimoto-san!” You snapped out of your musings.
“Tanaka-san.” You greeted back. The black haired guy chuckled, “I told you to call me by my first name. After all, we’ve been working together for 3 years. Unless, you don’t see me as a friend? Damn, it must hurt to only be seen as a student council partner even after winning the presidential election together.”
“Stop being so dramatic.” You huffed, plopping down into the chair and hands gravitating towards the papers on the table before being stopped by a hand on your wrist. Raising an eyebrow, he returned the gesture indicating there’s something he was expecting you to tell him. He released the grasp on your hand the moment you were falling back onto the back support of the chair with a sigh. “How may I help you Akio?”
“On the way here, I heard an interesting piece of news.” He sat sideways on the table, the leg on the table folded over the leg still standing. You folded your arms over your chest and hummed. “You and Shinazugawa were fighting?”
“It was just a talk that got a bit heated. I was trying to get a hold on him so we can do our project for literature together.” 
Akio’s eyebrows shot up and disappeared under his bangs. “Wow, what luck. First, he somehow got into your class through that stupid maths shit and now you have to deal with him.” He smiled in assurance, eyes crinkling close and  a hand over his heart. “Be careful but if anything happens, I’m here. I’ll come running to save my beloved president.”
You mouthed a wow. Silence blanketed the both of you as you nod in understanding - lips trying to contain the smiles and laughs - as he continued to express his devotion through his hand gestures - hand flying to point at you before returning to over his chest, patting it, then forming into a prayer of sorts - all the while mouthing his loyalty to you. 
With a shake of your head and hands indicating him to leave as you pulled yourself closer to your table, “Thanks but I doubt I need it.”
Instead, he tilted his head backwards and narrowed his eyes on the ceiling. “If you see what I saw, I wouldn’t put too much faith in him.”
Blood freezes over while questions overwhelm your mind. You gulped and licked your lips to get rid of the sudden dryness, “And what exactly are they?”
“He didn’t stop beating them up or screaming at them even when they were down. Three policemen had to pry him off and restrain him.”
Your heart dropped.
63 notes · View notes
quirklessidiot · 4 years
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Title: filthy rich [2/3]  Pairing: millionare!sakusa kiyoomi x y/n [filthy capitalist au] Genre: mild romance themes, major angst ahead, a bit of mystery, mafia!au-ish
Synopsis: He was perfect, maybe too damn perfect.
Warnings: mild sexual content, yandere themes, toxic relationships, violence, shady business, class differences, mentions of rape, and sakusa being a manipulative bastard [this fic does not in any way glorify these types of relationships!!!] Notes: Happy 605 followers guys! Decided to change this into a three part fic since it would be too damn long....I know this is a long overdue chapter hnnng i fucking hate college i cant wait to see sakusa in the new season, how was it guys? I was absolutely thrown off by akaashi even if he only had like a minute or so screentime hnnng...
previous ;; next || series masterlist || taglist 
Tumblr media
Sakusa Kiyoomi reminded you of an onion.
Over the past three years of going out with him, you seem to find a new layer to him. No longer was he the asshole from that day, he was the sweetest boyfriend, hands down. You were both a bit awkward in terms of affection since you two were treading on unfamiliar territory (much to your surprise, a man like Sakusa Kiyoomi has never been seriously intimate with anyone) but like every other couple out there, you surpassed it. You were now in the receiving end of his soft smiles, warm gaze, and affection.
Although you had your worries like your residency and his company growing bigger and bigger by the day, you started to wonder if you’d last long but the man casted your doubts aside and continued to be faithful to you and everyday you seem to fall deeper and deeper in the rabbit hole.
“...and for the last time, stop buying me expensive things and offering to pay my student loans.” you frowned, stirring the Butajiru for your boyfriend who was coming by today for dinner. Out of spite, early on in the relationship, you had to learn how to cook since Sakusa demanded you to when he learned that you lived a lot on canned foods and unhealthy take-outs. Much to your despise, he even volunteers to pay for your weekly groceries and even got you a ‘for sale’ stove that he apparently can’t return because he misplaced the receipt.
“I don’t get it, don’t partners like it when they’re given gifts all the time?” his brows are upturned, making you scoff. “From past experiences-”
“Are you sure that those weren’t sugar babies?” you cut him off, pointing the wooden spoon on your hand at him, “Because from your description you sound like a sugar daddy.”
“Hey.” He grumbled, walking up to you from behind to envelope you on a hug, “I’m not old enough to be a sugar daddy.”
You shut the stove off and turn to him, placing a brief kiss on the jaw, “You yell at teenagers and complain when it’s too noisy. I think you qualify for a senior discount and a sugar daddy title.” You joked, escaping his grip to grab some bowls so you both could start eating.
“You’re only four years younger than me.”
“Mhm.” You hummed, sticking your tongue out, “Also, aren’t you supposed to be at a party tonight?”
“You weren’t there.” 
“Aren’t you required to go?” You frowned, placing the bowl in front of him, “You know I’m not a big fan of those things and you can’t keep handing it over to Komori-san…”
“And you know I hate it when you aren’t there.” He softly repeated.
You roll your eyes and place your own bowl as you sit in front of him, “Always the smooth talker since we met three years ago.” you shake your head.
“Three years, huh.” Sakusa paused, “Speaking of three years, I was thinking…”
You stopped eating and looked up to face him, his face dead serious, “Move in with me.” He asked out of the blue. Your eyes widen and you let down a gulp, your stomach flipping at his words.
“I-” You paused, “I...I can’t…”
Sakusa tilted his head, confused, “What?”
“Don’t get me wrong…” You started, eyes looking at your food, seemingly nervous, “I-I wanna move in with you, my lease is almost up...but…”
“But what?”
“It’s not like I wasn’t going to tell you any sooner but….but i’m moving.”
Silence filled the room that you could almost hear the pin drop, “What do you mean you’re moving?” Sakusa’s voice was void of emotion and it made you scared for the first time. The man wishes you were wrong, wishing that you were just moving someplace nearby but the next words stun him.
“I got accepted for a huge humanitarian work in Medaide.” You gulped, carefully choosing your words as you slither your hands to his, trying to distract him, “We'll be travelling around third world countries, like the dream I've always told you about. I thought, well, I didn't got accepted since I didn't hear from them but it seems like I did.”
“How many months?”
“It’s- It’s a permanent job, I go back once a year…”
Silence enveloped the room, the only thing that could be heard was the faint sound of the bustling city outside. The world seems to have stopped for Sakusa that time.
“Congrats.” Sakusa smiled softly, breaking the silence, “I’m proud of you, bunny.”
Your eyes widen as you immediately leap out the chair and run to your boyfriend’s side, “Thank god!” you exclaimed, sitting on his lap to envelope him in a hug, “I was afraid you’d break up with me.”
You stare at him in the eye, hands on his cheeks, “Now why would I do that?”
“I don’t know, we’d only be seeing each other once a year if i accepted it.” You murmured, kissing him on the temple, “Thanks for being so supportive.”
You don’t notice how his grip tightens a bit on your waist nor the darken look looming over his features, “I’d never let you go, bunny. Never.” he hummed.
You continue on with your little happy bubble with your ever supportive boyfriend, you start shopping for some goodies for your trip that you were scheduled to leave next month. You should’ve known everything was too good to be true. 
A week before your trip, the company had called you in and said that you were cut off from the team and that apparently your experience wasn’t enough.
You vividly remember Sakusa rushing to your side mid-day when he should be swamped with work, whispering soothing words in your ear. You were absolutely devastated, the dream job you wanted felt like it slipped away, it took you a month to get back to your feet and actually go out. Despite getting over it, you were discouraged, the words they said echoed on your head, thoughts on how you weren’t performing well back  in med school and how your record on residency wasn’t enough.
“Y/N?”
“Oh.” you blinked, looking up to your boyfriend, “Sorry, I spaced out.”
“It’s alright.”
It seemed like the only constant thing in your life now was Sakusa, your friends were busy and they had come and gone, you didn’t want to worry your very busy parents so you didn’t call them about your dilemma. You didn’t want to call your aunt or Hinata about it too since you know they’d tell your parents.
Kiyoomi was the only person who stayed.
He was the only one you trusted.
“Is that roommate thing with you still open?” you suddenly asked, making Sakusa paused mid-movement.
“Of course it is,” He dropped the cutlery he was holding and strode to your side to caress your cheek, “It always is for you.”
“Guess I’ll be able to use my duplicate more often.”
Maybe being a humanitarian doctor wasn’t how it was going to be for you, it took another month for you to actually go and find a permanent job. Sakusa points out that you can take all the time out that you need but you don't want to lounge around and do nothing, you need a good distraction.
So you ended up working for a prestigious hospital as an ER doctor, for a moment, you forgot about Medaide with the help of your new job and your boyfriend.
You were happy.
Really happy.
The idea of staying in Tokyo didn’t actually seem like a bad idea now, you were going to bring it up to your parents and tell them that you wanted to stay here permanently with your boyfriend. They’d probably be happy, Sakusa Kiyoomi is a perfect man.
Until you come to the very sudden realization that he wasn’t.
Kiyoomi hated going out on long distance trips, he always wanted to be next to you or take you with him but this one was apparently too important to skip out so you greet him goodbye and wait for him to come home. Being the good partner you are, you decided to clean the house for your boyfriend. Kiyoomi was an incredibly clean person so you tried to keep your sloppiness to yourself when you moved in a few months ago.
Getting rid of the small dust here and there and throwing some unimportant things on the side, you prepare to throw out the collected garbage but ultimately freeze on your tracks when you find a ripped paper on the garbage dump.
Normally, you don’t do garbage dives.
Why would you?
Yet the name on top along with your boyfriend’s name caught your attention. It was Medaide’s logo, you grabbed the ripped piece of paper and started looking through the garbage dump, it did start to smell but curiosity always got the best of you.
Nervously biting your lower lip, you don’t find all the papers but you find one dated the same week you had broken the news to your boyfriend and the words, “Thank you for your donation and for sending us a group of more competent doctors for this batch.”
Your eyes narrowed as you stood there, shaking, the surge of panic and anxiety bubbling within you made the bile rose on your throat.
What was going on?
Was this really your perfect boyfriend?
Tumblr media
Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding, why would your boyfriend do that? What would he even gain? You bite on your fingernails as you walk back and forth in front of the front desk, “Y/N-san?”
You jump on the spot.
“K-Kenjiro-san.” 
“You alright there?” Shirabu Kenjiro asked, tilting his head to the side, “You’re not looking very good these days.”
“Y-Yeah…” You gulped, “J-Just thinking about some things.”
“Well, your shift is about to be over. Maybe you can go home earlier? ER’s pretty much dead right now.”  Your fellow doctor shrugged, you turned around and let out a sigh, maybe you should request to go home earlier. You needed to rest. All this thinking was getting to your head that you had almost misdiagnosed a patient this afternoon.
“Hey Kenjiro-san.” you ask your workmate, “Can I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“I have a friend.” You gulped down, “They’ve got this perfect relationship and he’s a super great guy...then-then they realize that he did something bad…”
Kenjiro looks up from his paperwork and shoots you his usual upturned brow, “Can you specify what he did?”
“He got in the way of their dreams.”
Kenjiro is silent for a moment as if he was thinking of something deep, “Well if I were that person, I’d leave him. What kind of asshat doesn’t support their partner’s dreams?” he asked, placing his hands on his hips, “Tell your friend that they deserve better and not some asshat who is holding them back.”
“Yeah,” you nodded, he had a very good point, “Yeah, that’s right.”
Kenjiro had a good point there, maybe confronting Sakusa would be a wise choice but as of right now you decided against it, you needed to gather the courage to actually talk to him about it. The thing that scared you the most was how much you loved and trusted the guy too much.
He went through such lengths to get you to stay around, who knows what else he could’ve done?
You shake your head, you were being paranoid yet at the same time you couldn’t help it. Your anxiety towards the situation wasn’t helpful at all and it was spiking up and down.
On your way home, you decided to pass by a local pharmacy because your head hadn’t been feeling very well, “Do you have any pain killers?” you weakly asked the man on the front counter, after giving you your medication, you also decided to buy some extra vitamins because you recalled almost running out of them.
“Oh, we ran out of that brand yesterday.” The pharmacist replied, scrunching his brow in wonder, “Would you like another one? It’s not a generic brand but it’s  pretty much the same.”
“Yeah, that’ll do too.” You nodded, after paying for your purchase, you headed home. Fixing up your medicine in your cabinet, you freeze mid-action when you notice how familiar the vitamin looked. Shakily raising your hand to grab your birth-control pills in the medicine cabinet, you almost topple down when you pop it open next to the vitamin you bought.
It was the same.
It was exactly the same.
Before you knew it you were vomiting in the basin, your headache was worsening and the shaking wouldn’t stop.
The idea of the perfect boyfriend was completely erased in your head.
You didn’t look well these past few days, Kiyoomi noticed it because you didn’t even dared to hide it anymore, you wanted to leave him. Not only did he get in the way of whatever you worked hard for but he was trying to get you pregnant without your consent.
You felt utterly disgusted.
You sat at the tub, completely drained from all the events that transpired this past two weeks. The three year perfect streak that he tried to maintain was reduced to nothing but shambles. You wanted to blame yourself for being too stupid and caught up in this sham, your boyfriend was messed up, you wanted to get away but how?
You inwardly sighed, you were stupid. Too stupidly in love and intoo deep the rabbit hole that you hadn't even noticed.
“Y/N?”
Your gaze snapped to find him standing there with an expensive bouquet of flowers, you try to let out a weak smile, “Hey.”
“You’re not looking well.” He commented, placing the flowers on the side as he approached your naked figure on the tub, “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” you nodded, “Just work.”
“I told you not to overstrain yourself.” He mumbled, bending down to your level, “You might get sick.”
You wanted to cringe away in disgust as he kissed your bare shoulders but you maintained yourself, “It’s fine.” You softly said, “I just have to do my best. I still want to try out for humanitarian work if I get a good recommendation from the hospital.”
You notice the quick shift of expression in his eyes, making you tighten your lips, so there it was.
“Again? I thought-”
“It’s my dream.” You began, trying to give him a smile, maybe, just maybe you can let him see through it, “You know how much I want this.”
“Maybe it’s not meant for you.”
“Excuse me?”
Sakusa Kiyoomi’s eyes widen at the new reaction, your smile turning to a grimace. Over the course of your relationship, you had never been this angry, “Y/N, you know that’s not-”
“Get out.” You shakily say.
“Y/N.”
“I said, Get out, Sakusa.” You yell again, eyes seeing red, the bastard had the audacity to keep pulling you back and doing these things to you. You were downright disgusted at him and everything he was doing, what more would you find? The mere fact that he destroyed your dreams and switched out your birth control had you on edge at the moment and you didn’t want to try to find out anymore, you probably wouldn’t be able to handle it.
He lets out a sigh, “You don’t have to leave the room. I’ll go sleep on the couch.”
You watch him leave and close the bathroom door yet his eyes don’t fool you anymore. 
You didn’t feel safe here.
You needed to get out.
Tumblr media
Sakusa Kiyoomi is no fool towards your shift of attitude, he knows something is up when you snap at him when you were usually the calmer one (yes, you may be a bundle of energy and spitfire but you were relatively calm in the most part) so he calls the head of your hospital and sits him down, the head is shaking and on his knees, begging him to spare his life and his job for he did not know that you were overworked at all in your department.
“...I watch over her, sir…” the chief shakily exclaimed, “I always do…”
“So, you’re telling me… that my Y/N is a liar?”
The chief immediately freezes up on the spot, “Good lord, of course not! Doctor Y/N would never-”
“What would it be?”
“E-excuse me?”
“Your hands or your life?”
The man immediately cries out, begging him for mercy for he was innocent but Sakusa didn’t care. 
He didn’t care at all.
Yes, Sakusa Kiyoomi would do anything for you. If someone were to make you sad, tired, weary, or any negative emotion, he’d strike them down, just like how he paid your friends to stay away, just like how he had subtly shifted your parents work conditions that prevented them from returning to you.
You were his and his only.
No one could get in your ways.
“My name is Doctor Sato, I’ll be your new chief...”
You stare at the new head of the hospital blankly, apparently the previous chief, Doctor Yamomoto, had to retire due to some matters with his family. It was a shame, you really liked him since he was awfully nice to you and everyone in the ward, “...L/N-san?” the older man calls out as soon as the meeting was over.
Your gaze snapped towards him as he tilted his head slightly, you’re completely bewildered by the sudden attention from your new boss, “Are your working conditions alright?”
“Yes, chief.” 
“If you have any problem, “ his tight lip turns into a big smile as he places his hand on your shoulder, “Please don’t hesitate to ask.”
You blink at his uncharacteristic request and immediately move back to get away from his grasp, a rather uncomfortable smile made its way to your lips as you nodded, “I’ll take note of that, Chief.” 
Thankfully nothing odd happened anymore after the day ended and as you patched up your things, getting ready to go home, you find your one and only boyfriend standing there with another bouquet of flowers in his hands. The sense of familiar dread sinked in once again.
How would you end this all?
The perfect man was a liar and he got in the way but why couldn’t you end things with him quickly? Why couldn’t you cut him off? You were so angry at him yet at the same time you were so lost, where did it go wrong?
“Y/N…” He greets, “How was work?”
“It was fine.” You quietly replied, turning your gaze  at the expensive bouquet on his hands once again. Ever since you guys fought, he had been buying you flowers and expensive things but you remained the same, you just didn’t know how to act anymore around him.
“How was your new chief?”
You immediately tense up, as far as you recalled you had only met the chief today and no one knew about this outside the hospital. How the hell did this bastard know?
Sakusa notices you’ve gone too quiet, “Y/N? What’s wrong?” he asks.
“Word travels fast, huh?” you blinked, regaining your composure quickly, something wasn’t right now, you knew that something went deeper than that little Medaide charade he did and switching your pills to get you pregnant, “He’s alright and please stop buying me stuff, didn’t I tell you that we were fine already?”
“Y/N-”
You sighed and leaned in closer, pulling down his mask so that you could give him a peck on his lips. Inside, you felt disgusted but this was the only way now, “Stop acting all cringey and lovey-dovey. I forgive you. Let’s not fight again.” You consoled the tall man.
You notice how soft his eyes became.
Yes, two can play a game. 
From stopping you from moving to trying to get you pregnant, it was those things that made you come towards a conclusion that Sakusa Kiyoomi didn’t wanted you to leave his side. The man probably wouldn’t stop at anything, if he was willing to go to such lengths, what more could he do? You let out a tight smile as your boyfriend kisses your temple.
You needed to find a way and quick because the Sakusa Kiyoomi you thought you knew for the past three years was nothing like the Sakusa Kiyoomi in front of you.
taglist [send me an ask if you want to be tagged for the last chapter and as always if i forget to tag, just send me an ask]
@maraudusk ;; @iamnotobsessed  ;;  @ssuna ;; @weebartistinc ;; @aomineavenue ;; @tsukkismamagucci ;; @onlyshinji ;; @ichiraku-verse ;; @watevermelon ;; @victoriasee ;;  @caramelcandescence ;; @n-nara ;; @bloody-bella ;; @ricefarmerkita ;; @paripedia ;; @srhlsx ;; @craftyfawns ;; @kepchups ;; @soggycardboardd​ ;;  @vinnieluv​ ;; @dinablossom​
@kn0xiousnight  @newfriendjen
[can’t tag you guys uwu just make sure ur tags are open :<]
562 notes · View notes
kitkatt0430 · 2 years
Note
Do you have a top five favourite fics you have written?
This is a tough one, in part because I have written a lot and I can't look at the number on Ao3 and have it feel real. I haven't written that much. Have I? (I have written a ridiculous amount.)
Also I might list six.
Anywho. Here they are, in no particular order.
1.) Hearts in a Void
This is a Kingdom Hearts fic about Ienzo relearning who he is as a person and discovering he's aromantic while he's at it.
It was written in part because I found myself really identifying with him and I wanted to write several aro focused stories for Aro Week that year. I loved the idea of Ienzo and Tron becoming friends. It gave me a chance to sneak in my aro/allo Squall Leonhart headcanon. Also for some reason I decided Ienzo would write poetry, which I'm generally bad at but I actually really like the short little poems I came up with for him. (And then Ienzo totally invented blogging in the KH universe.)
Of all the fics I've written focused on an aspec headcanon, I think this one is definitely my favorite.
2.) Don't You Forget About Me and the associated A Touch of Forgetfulness Series.
Flash fanfic where Cisco gets several years worth of amnesia and learns that he and Hartley not only buried the hatchet but got married since the accelerator incident. Also there a metas, but the Hartley thing is definitely bigger. It's angst with a (somewhat bittersweet) happy ending because even though Cisco doesn't get his memories back, he might and until then he's making new memories and starting to fall in love with Hartley all over again.
I really love this series, and the first fic in particular because it was heart wrenching to write. I think if I had to name my favorite Hartmon fic I've written, it'd be this. Though a close second would be...
3.) The Pied Piper's Army of Rats Series
It's hard to pick just one fic, but the series is one whole story. So it totally counts. :D
Cisco's headaches over time travel (some worse than others) and Hartley's personal growth from his focus on revenge to his focus on protecting Cisco have been fun to write. And they're falling in love with each other as they're both growing into better versions of themselves. Also there's the ever expanding plushie army of rats, of which there will eventually be an amusing pay off.
4.) Nothing (Everything) To Lose
An Ace Attorney fic that goes AU from the ending of Miles being successfully declared not guilty of his father's murder. Phoenix gets shot and there's a lot more blood going on than I usually mention in a fic. But Miles and Maya get some bonding time, Miles realizes he very much wants to keep Phoenix in his life this time, and Gumshoe does a very good job of looking after Miles while he's in shock. (I adore Gumshoe, he wants to be a Columbo type so bad and he just isn't, poor dear.)
I really, really enjoyed getting into Miles' head for this one. And it was a bit of a love letter from me to the Ace Attorney series, which I was first introduced to in college by my roommates. It was a near instant addiction to the ridiculous levels of humor that went into the series, but it was the undying friendship between Phoenix and Miles that really got to me. Phoenix's devotion despite their years apart since childhood. And Miles desperately wanting for Phoenix to be right about him despite being terrified that Phoenix would be proven wrong.
5.) Frame of Mind
Named after an episode of Star Trek: TNG and loosely inspired by the plots of at least two TNG episodes, I had the idea for a character to be trapped in a VR but unable to recognize or escape it without help from the outside for a long time. I shopped around on fandoms before finally settling on the Flash and the Hartmon ship, but the story as an idea was one that I felt I needed to tell for a very, very long time.
I considered Eureka, but by then I was souring on the show and only really still writing fic because a friend I've since lost touch with shared the fandom with me. I also considered Tales of Vesperia, but I didn't feel it worked with the setting. Tales of Xillia 2 might have been a good fit settings wise, but the characters didn't feel right... the Dominator tech from the Arrow-verse Invasion! x-over event ended up being just what I'd been waiting for, though. And while I had a few false starts after that, I really love the final outcome of the fic. It was worth the wait to get the plot matched up to the right setting and characters.
Bonus 6.) (Re)Learning to Breathe
Another Flash fic, this one focused on Iris and Caitlin in season 2 as they get space to grieve for their losses from S1, actually get to know each other, and find love again with each other. It was a request fic that I really enjoyed completing. The pacing felt right and having the ladies slowly fall in love seemed to just write itself.
3 notes · View notes
ohmypreciousgirl · 4 years
Text
Xicheng AU Rec List
This time I compiled my favorite AU fics for @waterandsilver! Hope everyone will enjoy this list too ♥
Just Two Lost Souls 46,978
Even if it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife, husband, or companion, all Jiang Cheng really wants is to run his company, take care of his pets, and maybe get some sleep. Unfortunately the new job promotion to CEO comes with a loaded social calendar and a need for some sort of companion.
So clearly the most sensible answer is to start dating the man he's had a crush on since he was a teenager.
Because nothing could go wrong there. Sequels: Hold Me Like You Want Me; I Am Yours, If You Are Mine; Jiang Cheng and the Lans; You Get a Torch and a Flame and Burn The Path You Want.
i don't really care how much silence kills me 15,611 [Part 1 of all the lights couldn't put out the dark] It’s been around 2 years since Jiang Cheng has last seen to his brother, and a little over a year since the last time he spoke to him, when they locked eyes at Nie Huaisang’s art exhibition. Jiang Cheng had only come because Huaisang had explicitly promised him he wouldn’t be here. He knows Wuxian and Wangji have just moved back into the area after traveling, and he has every intention of avoiding them at all costs, just like he avoids his college-era crush Lan Xichen. 
But it would seem that the universe has other ideas.
charcoal on newsprint 2,151 [Part 1 of fine art] Xichen distantly realizes that there is no way Huaisang had actually told Jiang Cheng that this is a nude modeling session. He can already hear Jiang Cheng’s clear baritone, dripping with sarcasm, telling the entire dinner table “So, Zewu Jun wanted me naked in front of all his students.” at the next Lan-Jiang family dinner.Uncle is going to have his head. 
Madam Yu is going to skewer him alive before that. Or, Jiang Cheng models for life drawing in his spare time.
Family 2,514 [Part 1 of The Lan-Jiang Family] Jiang Cheng stops dead in the doorway as he takes in the horrendous state the apartment is in; toys and clothes everywhere, new furniture, child-furniture, all over the place, and no matter where Jiang Cheng’s gaze drops, it’s been taking over by stuff that belongs to a child.
A child that is still screaming, almost drowning out Lan Xichen’s attempts to calm it down.
“What the actual fuck is happening here?” Jiang Cheng blurts out and while it does nothing to stop the child from screaming, Lan Xichen freezes.
Worthy of a god 1,859 [Part 1 of The most faithful] Jiang Cheng knows that there is a chance Chifeng-zun will choose him; he is the god of war and rage and ever since Jiang Cheng was old enough to scowl there had been talk at Lotus Pier, how well he would fit with that.
But Jiang Cheng also knows that there is a bigger chance of no god choosing him at all.
Not just a vacation [Part 1 of The best catch] The next night Lan Xichen goes back to the beach. He keeps out of sight at first, hoping to catch the man unawares first, his mind still reeling from the research he did during the day.
It’s probably not what Lan Qiren and Lan Wangji wanted for him when they sent him on this vacation, but Lan Xichen needs to know what’s going on here. The only thing his research turned up were tales of mermaid and Lan Xichen is not ready to believe that.
Until he catches sight of a rather huge tail, flapping out of the water.
What Happens in Vegas Comes Home to Taiwan 3,120 [Part 1 of What Happens in Vegas] What do you do when your brother is getting married to someone you can’t stand?
The answer probably shouldn’t be to marry his brother, but in Lan Xichen’s defense, he didn’t know Las Vegas would allow drunk people to tie the knot at three o’clock in the damn morning.
A Lionheart 19,916 Wherein Xichen is a Crown Prince and Jiang Cheng is his bodyguard.
Emergency Help Wanted 76,819 EMERGENCY HELP WANTED I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only.
how to not fall in love in a broken elevator 2,741 [Part 1 of a guide to falling in love (for runaways and heirs)] Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen get stuck in an elevator together.
Stream 4,494 He’s in love with Lan Xichen.
Jiang Cheng blinks once, twice and allows the feeling to fill him completely, at least once, before he ruthlessly squashes it down and locks it into the deepest parts of himself.
By the time Lan Xichen stops laughing and turns his attention back to Jiang Cheng, it’s as if nothing ever happened. Sequel: Umbrella - Savor
Jiang Cheng knows what he’s worth, after all, and it’s definitely not enough for the First Jade of Gusu.
How to get revenge on your brothers: A Guide by Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen 8,339 “That’s it. That’s the solution.”
Jiang Cheng opened an eye confused. “What do you mean?”
There was a weird light in Lan Xichen’s eyes and for a moment Jiang Cheng thought the other had gone crazy. “We will make them understand what it feels like seeing their brothers being… intimate with each other.”
Talent Hunt Crew Finds Angry Guy Shouting On College Campus, Recruits Him For Vocal Projection Abilities 80,575 Jiang Cheng, resident Angry Guy and heir to a conglomerate empire, has never been the apple of his father’s eye. Quashed under the shadow of his brilliant brother, the music prodigy Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng sees his chance to turn things around when he is recruited by the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt. One problem: he can’t sing to save his goddamn life.
do you eat pringles with or without the shell? 32,291 Wei Wuxian smiles at him, the bastard. “I’m proud of you for figuring this out. That means Xichen-ge is your gay awakening.”
“Don’t put it like that,” Jiang Cheng sighs but he isn’t wrong.
All This Could Be Yours 17,337 After transferring to the main branch of his family’s publishing business and into his newly-acquired responsibilities as its CEO and managing director, Lan Huan finds himself stressed and burnt out. His brother recommends a solution.
Jiang Cheng is too gay to deal with this shit.
how should i know what tomorrow will bring 1,630 “If they can’t accept the fact that Jin Ling will always be there, then they might as well fuck off.” Jiang Cheng points out.
“Well, sure.” Wei Wuxian concedes. “But you don’t even give them time to know if they want to be involved with you before you’re kicking them away. That’s not how first dates are supposed to go.”
“How would you know,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, annoyed that Wei Wuxian is right. This time. “You haven’t been on a date since like, 2002.”
Children's Secrets 5,225 Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen swap nephews for a weekend. Some revelations are made.
the Magical-Realism of Awkwardness 10,168 Jiang Cheng thinks things can't get worse when he is forced to third wheel Wei Wuxian and Lanzhan's date.
Then Lan Xichen shows up and proves that things damn well can.
(Or, what shapes up to be one of the worst days of Jiang Cheng's life takes an entirely different turn.)
in the incense is tangled a cool moon 3,614 Some loves aren't meant to be, Wanyin knows. 
Pay me in love 2,770 Madame Yu watches Lan Xichen walk away, until he is out of earshot, before she turns towards Jiang Cheng.
“What are you paying him?” she wants to know and Jiang Cheng can do nothing but stare dumbly at her.
“What?” he asks when she doesn’t say anything else.
“Did you really think I would believe you’re dating Lan Xichen, CEO of Lan Enterprises? Nice try, Jiang Cheng. Now tell me what you’re paying him.”
a slight tilt of perception 5,238 It was just a dance. 
Jiang Cheng, trying to avoid the society matrons and their matchmaking-themed whispers, accepted a dance invitation from Lan Xichen, an old friend.
He forgot that his dance partner was probably the most eligible bachelor in the room.
He forgot that was all it could take: a moment, a look, hands intertwined in a dance—and everything could change.
Not at all fake 3,070 “Tomorrow,” Jiang Cheng gives back and then makes a noise as if he’s dying. “Fucking hell, I’m a dead man. If I show up tomorrow without anyone in tow—without someone in tow who can give Lan Wangji a run for his money—then I am dead.”
There’s a beat of silence and then Lan Xichen says “Take me.”
Jiang Cheng blinks a few times, processing the words, but even after a full minute they don’t make any sense.
For better, for worse 6,713 People forget marriage vows are more than pretty words. It's easy to honor them when it comes to good things but they're easily forgotten when it comes to darker times. Lan Huan, however, always keeps them in mind. To love someone like Jiang Cheng, who wears his emotions on his sleeve due his terrible parents, is to remember that love is not simple.
Glow 3,033 [Part 1 of Eldritch!Lans AU] Jiang Cheng carefully turns his head, maybe the absence of his boyfriend is what woke him up, but when he looks at Lan Xichen’s side, he’s met with something so dark it even stands out against the darkness of the night.
There’s a void next to him in bed and Jiang Cheng throws himself out of it, Zidian already crackling and sparking, illuminating the room in a faint purple.
White Lotus in Bloom 7,147 As the Crown Prince from Gusu Lan visiting YunMeng Jiang, Lan Huan was beyond excited to attend the region's famous Lotus Festival, where he meets a boy in purple and black.
Never Had I Ever 56,263 Nie Mingjue is almost certain that Jin Guangyao has an ulterior motive for dating his best friend, Lan Xichen. However despite voicing his concerns, his best friend seems unconvinced and Lan Xichen continues to date the said man. Unable to give up just yet, Nie Mingjue tries a different tactic--convincing his best friend the man is not the right person for him by setting him up. Fortunately for him, Wei Wuxian's youngest brother is very much single and seems to be just the kind of person his best friend needs. Can Jiang Cheng truly change Lan Xichen's mind, or will Nie Mingjue's plan is a disaster from the beginning?
As he struggles to develop his nascent singing abilities, Jiang Cheng finds himself sucked into the whirlwind drama of reality TV, helped along by his adoring siblings, his irritable vocal coach Wen Qing, and strangely enough, the unfairly attractive host of the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt, Lan Xichen. Somewhere in the glare of the stage lights and an unexpected first love, Jiang Cheng stumbles upon the thing he was searching for all along: the courage to dream — and to attempt the impossible.
Comfort 1,838 Wei Wuxian always pisses him off, this is common between them. Some fights, however, make Jiang Cheng sad enough to lock himself away from people and Lan Xichen has taken on the role of always being there to comfort him.
midnight comforts 1,946 At 11:36 his phone buzzed next to his ear. Lan Huan had a strict sleeping routine, but even so he was a fairly light sleeper. He answered the call—no one he knew would call him this late without reason—and murmured a groggy greeting.
“Lan Huan?”
He sat up, already rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.
“A-Cheng?”
“I know it’s late,” he started, voice sounding odd through the phone, “but you,” he stopped again with a gasp. Now that he was more alert, Lan Huan realized with mounting horror that the hitch in his breath, the odd thickness, was from crying. “You said I could come over whenever,” he finished, voice much shakier.
To The Beat 1,859 [Part 1 of Fever]
"The bathroom is over there you fuc--"
His words caught in his throat as he saw the person on the other side. He looked a lot like Wei Ying's boyfriend, but he was smiling and his eyes were somehow kind; comparatively, the most expression he'd ever seen on Lan Zhan's face was mild disdain.
Jiang Cheng must have been staring dumbly for a while because the man cleared his throat. There was a blush rising on his cheeks, and oh fuck, that was kind of cute.
"I apologize for interrupting your night. I was told that this room was where the people who were 'no fun' were supposed to go," the man said. His voice was deep and somehow just as smooth as his skin, which was flawless.
It Took Me So Long To Find You 6,349 [Soulmate AU]
But it didn’t take him too long to realize that he was simply not worthy of the other.
So he hoped at least that they could become friends.
Lotus Pier burned down before Jiang Cheng could think of telling Lan XiChen. And after the Sunshot Campaign, he understood, being Lan XiChen’s soulmate would not just be a burden to the other, it would be a curse.
paint my skies with your skin 15,473 [Soulmate AU] “There’s no point in this, is there?” Jiang Cheng scoffs, “We both know I am not who you want your soulmate to be.”
“Soulmate or not, you have my heart and my ribbon. Only if you want it, Wanyin.”
once upon a dream 18,438 [Part 1 of once upon a dream] An au where your dreams are small snippets of your soulmate’s day. They’d show small things like buying coffee, reading a book, or hanging out with people from their perspective.
The problem was that people always have expectations and Jiang Cheng knows he always falls short of them. Time and time again.
60 notes · View notes
vilindeer · 3 years
Text
Fic Writer Interview
Thanks so much for the tag @daphnejane !! 🥰🥰🥰 I am excited about answering this.
1) How many works do you have on AO3?
Only 4️⃣.
2) What’s your total AO3 word count?
49,851 words. I am unable to write short things as you can see.
3) How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?
I am currently only writing Bridgerton, especifically Polin, but before that I wrote for Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (Zoey and Max). 
Can you tell I love friends to lovers ?😂😂
4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?
Since I only have four you get all of my fics by kudos.
i.The Art of Agreements  My very first multichapter where I attempt to write a friends to lovers slow burn. It’s an arranged marriage Regency AU where Violet’s prodding about Penelope makes Colin reach different conclusions about his dearest friend and do that things he normally fails at called act!
It’s my magnum opus and I have the utmost care with how I write it since it’s very close to my heart.💍🐝🦋
ii.The Bear and Bunny Series This one is what I call my comfort fic because it’s supposed to be fun and sweet and a bit TATBILB inspired.📧
It consists on a series of snippets of Polin as modern childhood friends all the way to adulthood, specifically what their relationship looked like in high school and college. The main premise is based on answering the following question will Colin be able to get his bestie back after what he pulled in his senior year? And if so how and what’s next for them?🐻🐰
iii.Of Self Sabotage and Epiphanies This is canon divergence of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist episode 1x08 where our protagonist actually listens to The Universe and sees her glitch for what it really is. I remember I had it stuck in my head and I had to put it on paper.
It’s my very first fic and I still love it very much not only for what represented but the friendships and moments it reminds me of. It also makes it clear I like to make my protagonists more self aware which is some kind of unforgivable offense to TV apparently. rolls my big beautiful brown eyes
iv.It’s beginning to look a lot like forever This is what I like to imagine as a lost moment in time before season 1 of Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist where we get a glimpse at the first stages of Zoey’s and Max’s friendships in their very first Christmas as friends.
All Zoey wants that Christmas is to figure out how to help Max with his family drama. Should be easy right?😉😉
5) Do you respond to comments, why or why not?
ALWAYS! I absolutely love comments and they keep me going! Moreover, as someone who is an amateur writer that has mostly being a reviewer throughout my fandom endeavors I know how much it hurts to be vulnerable and comment and feel like you are screaming into the void. My reviewers will always get a reply (sometimes a bigger reply than their comment but we don’t talk about that since that shows who the real fangirl is). 
As a writer now I know how lonely it is not getting comments or kudos or any kind of feedback even if you are (as you should) solely writing for yourself and the people you care about so the reader- writer interaction means a lot.
6) What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?
I am not really big on angst (so far at least winks at the audience) but I reckon the ending of the last chapter of B&B is a bit ambiguous there is uncertainty and buried hurt and Colin is genuinely afraid there is no going back.
7) Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve ever written?
I haven’t so far and at the moment I don’t see any potential for it buuut never say never I guess.
8) Have you ever received hate on a fic?
I am lucky enough to confidently say no but I am also self aware enough to know it’s a matter of time if I keep writing.
Am I going to be absolutely destroyed ? YES!
Will I stop writing? Absolutely not.😊
9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?
I am slowly dipping my toes into that pond. I have lots of ideas (and an outstanding support group) but the initial barrier is still here. But I do have smutty things in the works. Things I am trying not to over analyze or delete in a fit of crushing insecurity and self loathing.
10) Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not that I know of.
11) Have you ever had a fic translated.
I wish.
12) Have you ever co-written a fic before?
👀Who knows? 🤫
13) What’s your all-time favorite ship?
I am incapable of choosing because what makes me love every one of them is too different to generalize.
14) What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?
Ok clears throat and tests microphone I know I am terribly late at updating but nothing , let me repeat that again NOTHING is abandoned. I will finish my fics if it kills me.
By the way I just got kudos in AOA even though the last update was entirely too long ago and it makes me want to finish the chapter as fast as I can so thank you.
15) What are your writing strengths?
I feel like I am not qualified to answer that question but people tend to praise my descriptions and my word play so I guess that would be what I would go with.
16) What are your writing weaknesses?
DIALOGUE! I feel like I can never get my characters to sound human when they speak and I struggle a lot with it. I am also a terribly slow writer or more accurately I am a terribly inconstant writer I can write 20000 words in one go or a get stuck in a single sentence for an hour. 
I am also incredibly picky about the right word because it has to sound right in my head and that delays stuff.
17) What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?
I always think it’s so cool when done right. As for doing it myself I have the perfect excuse with Colin because he is a traveler and what not but I will probably get stuck in the languages I am proficient at which are only 3. Since that is clearly not the right thing to do if I ever decide to do it I guess I will try to reach out to fans that are native speakers in order to bring some realism to it.
18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?
Zoey’s Extraordinary playlist and my beloved Clarkeman.
19) What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?
Ooooooh I think it’s probably The Art of Agreements because I took a chance at a multichapter and I planed it all neatly and even though my posting schedule has been a mess I am proud of how I am conducting the story.
I will be tagging anyone that wants to do it because it’s fun and there might be some writers I don’t know reading this and I would love to read your answers. As for my peepz @jacquiebethelina44 , @ladylillianrose , @queenie-004 , @pichitinha @ladyjunebridgerton
5 notes · View notes
rocket-bear · 4 years
Text
shinsena ghost fic outline
SO. on my last list of shinsena fic ideas I had written "shinsena ghost AU (yes, like the patrick swayze movie) but with an actually happy ending". I have decided that I'm not actually going to write this fic because 1) it would take forever and I have other ones that are bigger priorities for me and 2) the inspiration for it was really the MOUNTAIN of IT fix-it fics I was reading in early 2020 because I was Going Through It where I then shunted that inspiration over into a fandom I was actually comfortable writing for, and at this point I have moved past that stage and no longer need the catharsis,
BUT! I do really like the bits that I did already write for it, and I still love the idea, so I'm just going to go ahead and post the WIP bits that I did get finished, and then flesh out what the rest of my plan was after!
The fic takes place in Sena's second year of college! It's a ghostfic so, y'know, warning for major character death and copious discussion of grief, haha, but it gets better!!! Also, in addition to ShinSena there's BG mentions of HiruMamo in both the fic excerpts and bulletpoints for the rest of the planned plot. Text below the cut is about 6k words!
---------
"Aw, beans," is the first thing Sena hears after he dies.
He doesn't really process it in the moment, too busy blinking up at the bright, unclouded sun and distantly noticing that it doesn't hurt his eyes. He sits up, running through the last few moments in his mind-- a bouncy ball dotted with pink flowers, skipping merrily over the sidewalk into the street, a girl in her school smock tottering on chubby legs after it, a car unavoidably close, his view of everything blurring as he throws himself forward without even thinking about it--
Oh.
"EHHHH," he shrieks, and scrambles away from his body, and it doesn't come with him.
"I'm going to be in ;so much trouble," that voice says again, and Sena whips around because it's the only thing he can actually hear clearly, even though he's pretty sure he should be able to hear-- the other people around him, looking at his body without looking at him, everyone unharmed but most of them in tears, and he doesn't want to think about that.
So he looks, and sees-- something. It almost looks like an afterimage, at first, the kind of light-dark luminescent spots your eyes put up when you look away from a light you've been staring at too long, but it stays put as Sena stares at it, a kind of void of shifting light just stamped in the way of his view of the bushes lining the sidewalk.
"Um," he says, and the Thing kind of goes more dark-light than light-dark for a moment as it… sighs?
"Yeah, sorry, you're not getting me at my best, this wasn't supposed to happen," it says, and Sena feels like he would be hyperventilating if he had lungs, but he doesn't anymore.
"No, listen," the Thing says, and it starts to get bigger, which Sena belatedly realizes is because it's moved closer to him. With the way it doesn't actually seem to take up space, it's hard to tell. "Let's move away from here, okay? It's going to be hard for you to listen with all this going on."
And, well-- Sena casts a glance back behind him, to the people with their hands over their mouths and tears in their eyes and the pointless things they're doing to his body to try to bring him back to it, and he scrambles up to his feet and follows the thing.
"Okay, here goes," the Thing says as they move further away from the-- the scene, and then its voice changes. "Fear not, mortal, for your time on this plane has elapsed, and you have accomplished all that you were intended for. Your current form--"
"Wait," Sena says, fighting against the mesmerizing effect of the Thing's shifting lights in combination with its new, multilayered voice, high and low at once but somehow soothing. "I thought you said this wasn't supposed to happen??"
"Well, okay, yeah," the Thing says, its voice reedy and thin once more. "Your time actually isn't supposed to be up, but-- okay, did you know you're like, really fast? Like crazy fast. I was just supposed to nudge the driver once they stopped the car in time, you know, typical near-death experience stuff, but you jumped right through me before I was in place."
"You kill people by touching them?!" Sena skitters away from the Thing, and gets the distinct impression that the silvery flush it pulses in response is decidedly unimpressed.
"I can't kill you again," it says. "And we don't kill things, anyway. We just… mark them as finished. I got you out of the oven too soon, that's all."
That sounds a lot like it was only different from killing things in terms of word choice to Sena, but he doesn't say so.
"C-can-- can we fix it?" He asks instead, the first shards of ice-cold realization sinking in at last. He's dead. He's dead?
The Thing flares sigh-dark, and says, "You know this kind of thing has only happened like, four times before? Ever! Since the dawn of humanity! It's been like 20,000 years since the last time! I don't know off the top of my head, kid, I'm gonna have to look it up."
"Then-- there's a chance? How long will that take? What if-- I mean-- they're gonna take me to the hospital--"
The ice shards sink further into his body, but the Thing's voice is dismissive.
"If there's a way, that's not the body you're going to be coming back to; there's no way we're gonna be able to do this without rolling back the clock. So don't worry about the morgue, okay?"
Which-- was a relief, but Sena feels an empty sensation at the word "morgue" that he's pretty sure would have been nausea if he had a working stomach left to experience it.
Some of that must show on his face because the Thing comes to an abrupt stop, and its voice is more gentle as it says, "Okay, gameplan. If there's a way to get you back, it's gonna have something to do with the energy left over from your presence among the living. So go see your friends and family and see what you can figure out. Right now, you're a ghost, so there's got to be some way to tap into that energy."
Sena nods a little numbly at first, working on auto-pilot, and then nods more firmly as he actually processes the Thing's words. A plan! That means-- there's something he can actually do, while the Thing goes to-- "look it up." That's good! A plan!
And then, the Thing goes yellowish, and its tone turns apologetic.
"And… Speaking of ghost stuff, I didn't get to finish this part before. Your current form will let you move around this plane to visit your loved ones and grant yourself any closure you desire, but you won't be able to interact with the living world, and if we're not able to fix this in time-- when the time comes, you'll have to make a choice. Move on completely to the next plane, or stay here with your loved ones until there are none left who remember you."
Sena blinks, going still, and the Thing glows even more yellow.
"So we've got about [a month] to figure this thing out. I'll do what I can, kid. You hang tight."
And then it's gone, and Sena is left alone on the sidewalk.
He does all that he can do, and goes to find Mamori.
------
He doesn't think through the consequences of that until he gets to her apartment and finds her in tears and Hiruma on the phone, calling them an escort to the hospital. Every awful minute of that first day feels like nothing more than a smear in Sena's memory by the time his funeral comes around. He spends the time in-between trying his best to do something, anything, that will let his friends and parents know that he's still there. He does his absolute best to go full Hollywood Haunting on everyone he knows, trying to knock over pictures or rattle windows or flick lights on and off, but nothing works. Every once in a while, when he's flopped beside Mamori on the floor as she goes through photo albums, he almost thinks she hears him as he talks about the photos she's flipping through-- but it always just ends up being a fresh round of quiet tears that brings Hiruma over to her side.
The funeral seems to be no different. He'd hoped, somehow, that maybe having so many loved ones gathered in one place to think about him would somehow give him the energy to make himself solid-- and there are so many people there, not just Sena's family and closest friends, but people from nearly every team in the Tokyo American football community, some of them who he only ever remembered seeing across the field.
All of the original Devil Bats are there, of course. Kurita sobs his way through the service. The Ha-Ha Brothers stand stony-faced, and Juumonji scrubs a rough hand across his eyes, but Sena never sees any tears. Suzuna clings to Monta's arm as they both cry openly with Riku in the row behind Sena's parents, Mamori, and Hiruma.
His parents cry. Mamori seems too exhausted to, just sitting quietly and taking in the service with bruised red eyes. Hiruma puts his arm around her shoulder at one point, and Sena finds himself surprised by how much tenderness he's seen between them in the last few days. Hiruma had handled almost all of the arrangements, actually-- Mamori and Sena's parents making the decisions, and Hiruma diligently rising from each discussion to make the appropriate phone calls.
In the middle rows, Sena finds himself looking at Shin and Sakuraba. He shouldn't have been surprised to see them-- and he really wasn't, not really, he knew he would be devastated and would definitely show up if the situation was reversed-- but something on Shin's face startles him into looking again.
He looks tired. Sena doesn't think he's ever seen Shin tired, before, not even after playing full-out through an entire game, not even after the most intensive of training. But Shin's face is undeniably drawn, and the skin underneath his eyes is bruise-dark.
Sakuraba tears up, and Shin doesn't, but it's Sakuraba who lays a comforting hand on Shin's shoulder. [UNFINISHED SCENE-- also I had intended to go back and make this scene more accurately reflect Japanese (vs Western) funeral traditions but have not done that since, I'm not finishing the fic]
----------
He finds himself seeking out one of his and Shin's old training routes from high school, when they lived close enough that it made sense to share. It's been years since he ran this route, but it makes sense, he figures, that he would be revisiting old memories like this. It was a good route, anyway-- at one point it ran alongside the river, and Sena remembers reaching it on hot summer days, and noticing that even Shin tipped his face into the breeze when the sun was really beating down.
He walks along the path at first, but before long finds himself jogging, the force of memory and habit alike drawing him into those quick strides. It doesn't feel the same without the sensation of the wind on his face, or the heat of the sun on his body, or even the sweat beading up stickily between his skin and his clothes, but it's something.
Without fatigue or fear of obstacles to keep him vigilant, Sena finds himself startled before too long by the sound of steady footfalls coming up behind him. He automatically shifts his path to make way-- though it doesn't matter much now, he thinks with a frown-- and looks up as the lone jogger makes to pass him.
It's Shin.
Sena's not-heart squeezes painfully at seeing him unexpectedly, and Sena gapes.
"Shin-san--" He gasps, and of course Shin doesn't respond or look his way. Sena swallows the painful reminder and adjusts his pace to match Shin's.
They run together, and of course it's quiet, because Shin doesn't know that he has company. Not that companionable silence was atypical for their runs together before-- running was for focusing on technique, including breathing, so they would save the chatting for before and after.
Sena wonders if Shin had kept to running this path all along-- he was so sure that they'd both abandoned it when they'd made their way to university. Or at least, Shin had apologetically told him so, when he'd moved on to Oujou University and Sena was still in his third year at Deimon.
Maybe Shin's feeling nostalgic too, Sena thinks, and then shakes his head. He doesn't want to be sad, and it's nice to have Shin at his side, even if Shin doesn't know he's there.
He tries to sink into the feeling of running. It's still hard-- he can't feel much of anything, after all-- but with Shin there, it's a little easier to fall into old memories and let those guide him. He can pretend-- to feel the gentle breeze off the river cooling the sweat on his face, to feel the push of the sidewalk under his feet launching him into his next step, to feel how the sun is hotter on his back and shoulders than anywhere else as it crawls its way up the sky.
It almost feels like normal, finding that rhythm alongside Shin that has their steps striking the pavement in tandem, Sena's extra stride to make up for their heights a little accented half-note; that peaceful, focused haze that has them inhaling and exhaling in synch. It's so perfectly familiar that Sena can almost imagine a lump rising in his throat and the sting of tears in his eyes, nearly overcome with the twin sensations of having and loss--
--when Shin startles hard beside him and skids to a stop, with a gasp that has Sena's blood running cold before he even looks back for him, the image of the oncoming truck flashing through his mind.
But there's no truck here, of course. They're on a running trail, on a totally separate level than the road, but it's obvious enough what drew that terrifying, uncharacteristic noise from Shin's lungs when Sena looks back, and his eyes meet Shin's.
Shin sees him.
[UNFINISHED SCENE, this is the last of the actual fic that I wrote!]
---------
FROM THERE here was the plan:
- Shin being able to see him only lasts a split second. Shin's super shaken and keeps looking around and rubbing his eyes for a couple moments, and then he turns around and walks back to the train, and Sena-- thinking, like, "holy shit, Shin never skips training"-- follows him back, because even though it's super heart-breaking seeing Shin so shaken up it's also the closest he's gotten to making any progress the whole time
- Shin gets back to his dorm and just like. sits down at his table with his head in his hands. Sena's motivation to keep trying to get his attention kind of dries up so he pokes around Shin's dorm room instead and notices, like. a bunch of half-eaten meals/snacks in the trash, "Practice" scratched out on his calendar for the next few weeks, unmade bed, evidence that Shin's only really gotten dressed to go out jogging over the last few days and is only wearing his pajamas otherwise-- he's just not doing good.
- Just as Sena's like, really starting to grasp this, Sakuraba shows up at the door-- Shin gets up to answer the door with his back to Sena and like, whatever Sakuraba sees on Shin's face just stops him in his tracks and he immediately pulls Shin into a hug, which Sena is kind of shocked to see that Shin totally sinks into
- Sakuraba sits down with Shin at the table and they talk. Shin admits that he thought he saw Sena while he was jogging, and both of them are just brushing it off as like, a grief-induced sensory memory, stuff like that happens, etc. Sakuraba comforts him and encourages Shin to take it easy, it's okay to take time off of even his own personal training, it's okay if he needs more time, and also like fusses about Shin not getting enough to eat especially if he IS going to keep training
- Sena meanwhile is like, feeling awful with guilt but also just kind of overwhelmed with the realization of how important he was to Shin, and this is where I would've like, laid the groundwork for how they'd gotten closer during the rest of high school/early college but Sena still never rrreally understood how much Shin cared about him because 1) he's got self-esteem issues baybee, and 2) Shin is not exactly, like, super forthright about his feelings,
- but, while Sena DOES feel awful about how much Shin was shaken up about seeing him, it's the only thread he can think of to pull on to try and bring himself back, and he ALSO feels guilty about having to watch everyone grieve for him, so, well,
- he starts haunting Shin!! Shin does not listen to his good and helpful friend Sakuraba and goes jogging again the next day, but it's obvious that he's still feeling Off and he's having a hard time getting into a rhythm, and Sena isn't able to tap into ~whatever it was~ that made him visible the previous time and is feeling super defeated about it, UNTIL,
- Shin takes a break at the midpoint of his normal route, which is a thing Sena knows he does not generally do from their own training together, and is basically just slumped over on a bench with his head in his hands again and Sena's also feeling awful and helpless and does the same thing,
- and then Shin tenses up beside him, his breath getting shallow, and Sena notices and tentatively calls out to him. Shin slowly, slowly looks up, and they make eye contact for just a second again, before Sena can tell he's not visible anymore because Shin's eyes kind of unfocus and he looks away, and just gets up and goes home.
- This kind of refreshes Sena's determination, and over the next few days (IT WAS GONNA DEPEND ON HOW LONG I WANTED TO TORTURE SHIN) they repeat the same pattern, with Sena going on Shin's jogs with him and occasionally achieving small flashes of visibility(/audibility, though Sena isn't ever able to get out anything helpful before the universe mutes him again) which Shin seems to be determined to just brush off as grief illusions even as he gets more and more tense each time
- Until finally as they're jogging, Shin sort of tersely asks "Are you there?" and instead of saying anything Sena just tries to barrel into him for a hug because clearly auditory-visual haunting only isn't WORKING and we've gotta get some TACTILE FEEDBACK in here,
- and it works. He knocks Shin off of his stride, and Shin grabs for him in turn, and there's a moment where they both stare at each other in total shock and relief before Sena starts trying to frantically tell Shin the whole story and disappears out of his arms like, three words in.
- Shin has a little tiny mental breakdown in the middle of the sidewalk where he cycles from devastation at Sena disappearing again to trying to pull himself together like, "okay if this is real then this isn't my last chance because it's happened a lot over the past few days" to a kind of giddy catharsis because it's real Sena's really here to kind of shutting down over the idea that maybe it's STILL not real and he's just going REALLY crazy to actually pulling himself back together and going to find a bench to sit down on, and just like,
- talking things out, out loud, in hopes that Sena can hear him. He can only see Sena when they're running, which is something they used to do together, so maybe recreating old memories is what triggers it. He's noticed that even when running, he usually sees Sena in moments when he's feeling least conflicted/emotionally complex-- either pure grief or pure nostalgia or pure just-zoning-out-running, not as much when he's really struggling to process and has a lot going on internally at once. Maybe the stability of the emotion is part of it.
- Sena meanwhile is having his own meltdown from sheer overwhelming relief over FINALLY FINALLY making contact and Shin FINALLY FINALLY believing he's there and also just like making hearteyes at Shin for immediately going into full methodical Ghost Scientist mode after getting his own meltdown over and done with
- speaking of going full Ghost Scientist, Shin announces his intention to do exactly that by saying he's heading back to his and Sena's old running trail to test out the "recreating memories" theory right that second, and they head over.
- They jog, and Shin talks out some of his memories with Sena from his own perspective, which is a surprise for Sena because he doesn't even remember some of the things that Shin does and also it lets him actually understand what Shin was thinking in those moments.
- And most importantly: it works. It's not constant, but the longer they practice, the longer they're able to keep Sena in view for longer stretches of time, more of an unsteady flicker than the total off-or-on that it was before. They stay out for a long time (and in the process discover that other people still can't see Sena when Shin can as he continually gets weird looks for talking to thin air) and Shin actually eats a real meal when he finally goes home.
- Sena and Shin keep practicing over the next few days, which makes Sakuraba SUPER concerned because Shin spending hours and hours jogging every day looks like Shin further depression-spiralling from his perspective, but he's somewhat mollified by the fact that Shin's actually getting back to eating and getting dressed etc. normally, even though he's still not going to practice.
- During this time, Sena and Shin bond when they're actually able to communicate. Sena notices that Shin's parents haven't checked in on him even once despite the fact that he just lost a friend, and Shin confirms in one conversation that he basically doesn't have a relationship or emotional connection with his parents at all. (But watch, hang in there, I'm gonna fix it,)
- In the meantime, Shinigami-san tracks Sena back down and they both share what they've learned. Shinigami-san says that Sena has to gather energy from as many of the people he's formed bonds with as possible to chain himself more strongly to life, and gives him a pendant to wear around his neck that will store the energy. When Sena talks about his and Shin's experiments, It says that it makes sense that being emotionally and physically in-sync would help bolster the connection between them to the point where other people would be able to see him, and that if they practice enough they might even be able to just use one or the other (emotional sync or physical sync) without needing both.
- After Sena laboriously relays this to him through flickers, Shin gets a metronome and they both practice tapping their fingers to the rhythm, and they're finally able to see each other at Shin's dorm room vs having to be on a run and actively reminiscing together. They develop a system where when Shin wants/needs to see him, he'll tap his finger against the side of his leg and Sena will do the same thing so they can actually talk.
(- There is at least one moment in the development of this that, when Sena successfully appears in front of him, Shin smiles fondly and very softly says, "There you are," and Sena immediately disappears again because he's so shaken to his disaster bisexual core that he can't even handle it.)
- During this process they find out that Sena's pendant glows when Shin is reminiscing or otherwise talking about his feelings (but not the capital-L feeling) about Sena, which lets them know how to go about "gathering energy" from Sena's friends.
- With the clock counting down on Sena's deadline, Shin starts approaching Sena's friends to "check on them," or, to sit down with them and talk about Sena. It's a little awkwardly sweet on both sides, because no one expects Shin of all people to be making sympathy housecalls and Shin's not very good at talking about feelings, but the conversations are surprisingly genuine and cathartic for all parties (including Shin, who is still processing some weird sideways grief even with his new connection to ghostSena, and Sena, whose self-esteem issues have a hard time standing up under a deluge of people talking about how much they cared about and miss him), PARTICULARLY:
- Monta and Suzuna, where the reminiscing works a little too well and they actually see a flicker of Sena sitting at Shin's side during the conversation and freak out. Shin immediately changes tacks and tells them that Sena is there and that he's trying to bring Sena back and he needs their help, and at first this makes them freak out more because what the fuck but by virtue of Shin being… Seijuurou "Overly-Serious-Stoic-Never-Overreacted-In-His-Life" Shin, he convinces them to try the tapping technique to bring Sena back into view.
- Sena has Shin describe a memory involving the three of them while they tap along to Shin's rhythm, and the combination of reminiscing and tapping works well enough that they're able to get frequent enough flickers of Sena to believe Shin. Yes, they do get a least one good long group hug out of the flickers, I'm not a monster.
- Shin still has to do most of the communication for Sena because it would take a lot of practice for the Sena-Monta-Suzuna combo to get enough in-sync to be able to communicate effectively, but he explains the whole situation and all the information they've gotten from Shinigami-san. They decide that it still makes the most sense for Shin to field the energy-gathering housecalls for the same communication-based reasons-- Sena can guide Shin through the conversations by suggesting memories to bring up with his friends-- but all the same, Shin suddenly finds himself with two tiny new best friends who want to hang out with him all the time. (And not even just to talk to Sena! Suzuna and Monta become pretty attached to and curious about Shin after he shows them more of his vulnerable side in the conversation leading up to the point where they actually see Sena themselves.)
- I was going to go through little flashes of Shin's conversations with a lot of Sena's friends across the football world, but the other Big One was going to be Mamori, of course. (And a little bit of Hiruma, who refuses to sit down for an Emotional Conversation with fucking Shin, but will gladly peanut-gallery Mamori's out of his own repressed desire for catharsis and also to make sure with guns loaded that Shin doesn't fuck up the fragile acceptance Mamori's been building since Sena's death.)
- Having learned from the experience with Suzuna and Monta, Sena wisely sits out of view during the conversation because he actually doesn't want to put Mamori through the rollercoaster of seeing him again, especially if his and Shin's efforts fail.
- Shin does not fuck up his conversation with Mamori and so Hiruma doesn't have to murder him! It's actually the most honest-- and healing-- conversation he has with anyone. Mamori finds herself feeling very fond of Shin, who she didn't know was so close with Sena and could be so supportive and empathetic under all that stoic strength, and Shin finds himself immediately adopted by another one of Sena's loved ones.
(- In their conversation, Mamori also mentions that just after Sena passed she kept finding herself thinking she heard Sena's voice, because that seed in the actually-written bit above was in fact foreshadowing ohoho.)
- I was not going to Go Into It because not even I have the strength, but to continue the theme of Shin finding a new family via his bond with Sena, there was going to be a brief scene referencing that Shin's visit with Sena's parents went much the same, with the addition that Shin was surprised Sena's parents already knew so much about him (because as it turns out Sena talked about him FREQUENTLY.)
(- Also within the housecalls there's a comedy scene where Shin makes Sena solid just long enough for Sena to log Shin in on Skype so he can talk to Panther without sacrificing a computer, and they discover that international friendship energy gathering does in fact work.)
- AND THEN: SAKURABA. The fic would switch to Shin's POV from here! In Shin's energy-gathering conversation with Sakuraba, things are going well at first, with Sakuraba reminiscing about Sena and then turning the conversation toward Shin himself to talk about how he's noticed Shin's seeming a lot more steady and like he's been doing some real healing lately. Shin obviously does not explain the ghostSena situation, but does honestly say that his conversations with Sena's other friends have helped him process his feelings a lot. And Sakuraba, being a supportive friend, very gently says that he's proud of Shin for reaching out, and for doing so well when he's going through something so hard, because he can't imagine losing the person he was in love with.
- Shin freezes up, and Sakuraba tries to reassure him that it's okay, he's known for a long time, he's so sorry that Shin never got to actually process those feelings with Sena, and Shin doesn't have to talk about it but if he ever wants to Sakuraba's there for him-- and Shin very stiltedly deflects the whole conversation because he doesn't want to totally shut Sakuraba down when he's just trying to be supportive but also Sena is right there
- After finally, awkwardly shooing Sakuraba out the door, Shin sits back down and tries to Talk About It with Sena, but he's so emotionally frazzled that he's not able to get a stable connection. Since they can't have a two-way conversation, he just launches into apologizing-- he's sorry, he understands if it makes Sena uncomfortable, Sena doesn't need to feel obligated to respond to it and of course Shin is going to help him finish getting what he needs regardless--
- Sena's just RAPIDLY flickering in and out of view, with the time he's not visible getting longer and longer as Shin keeps talking because they are incredibly emotionally out-of-sync, and with Shin only able to tell that Sena looks upset whenever he's able to see him, he makes some Assumptions about Sena's feelings about his accidental confession.
- Things don't get better over the next day or two. They try to do their synchronizing exercises, but even reciting memories doesn't help because Shin is too anxious and ashamed (and sleep-deprived from stress) to connect to them emotionally, which is only compounded because he realizes that Sena's deadline is fast approaching and they won't be able to finish in time if he can't get his shit together but that anxiety Does Not Help with relaxing enough to synchronize when he's spiralling over the thought of losing Sena again because of something that he "did".
- Finally, Sena apparently gets desperate and snatches up the metronome during one of the moments when he's solid for just long enough to do it.
- Shin doesn't see him for a while after that, and assumes (correctly) that Sena has taken the metronome with him to try and sync with Monta and/or Suzuna instead, and also assumes (incorrectly) that this is because Sena is extremely disappointed with him at best and totally hates him at worst, and that either way Sena probably doesn't want much to do with him anymore even if he is able to be brought back.
- He spirals for like, A Day, after which he does in fact break and go to tear up very stoically on Sakuraba about how yes he was (is) in love with Sena and it hurts him that he'll never get to express that properly (now that Sena wants nothing to do with him) and how he feels like he let himself (and Sena) down by not being able to act on that earlier (when it wasn't a literal life-or-death situation) and how maybe he's just not cut out for emotions and connections with other people actually, just look at even his relationship with his parents???
- Sakuraba comforts him and very gently tells him he's being a catastrophizing dingus and shows him, like, a mountain of texts on his phone not ONLY from concerned fellow Oujous, but also from a bunch of the people that Shin's talked to about Sena over the last few weeks, all of them expressing the general sentiment of "wow I was super surprised when Shin came around to talk to me about Sena but I'm so glad he did, it looks like he's doing well, keep an eye on him for me" in varying levels of transparency because after all they are Manly Footballers, but regardless: look at that, Shin is actually perfectly capable of forming relationships with other people, and they like and care about him.
- This results in some decidedly less stoic tears, and Sakuraba and Shin successfully patch things up after their previous awkward discussion about Shin's feelings for Sena. When Shin leaves he immediately heads for Enma to try and find Monta, because even if Sena and his friends don't want to see him he absolutely can't just shrug and sit back and just wait to see if they manage to save him.
- When he's like halfway there, he comes across Monta and Suzuna heading in his direction, and they cut off his questions by just being like NOPE SHUT UP COME WITH US and dragging him over to like, a park gazebo for some semi-privacy.
- Suzuna gets the metronome out of her bag and sets it on the park table and turns it on. Monta pulls a piece of paper out of his pocket and starts reading.
- It turns out that after he left Shin's, Sena ghosted up into Monta's room and just plopped the suddenly-appearing metronome down on Monta's desk, scaring the shit out of him but also giving a very clear signal of WE NEED TO TALK. Monta called up Suzuna and the three of them had spent the last day and a half working on synchronizing non-stop, and while they still aren't nearly as good as Shin and Sena had gotten with weeks' worth of practice, they got far enough along that Sena was able to have them slowly write out some of his memories with Shin, this time from his perspective, through the unsteady connection.
- Suzuna and Monta take turns yanking the paper back and forth between them to read out the description of Sena and Shin's memories, and with Shin tapping along to the metronome, he's able to see Sena more and more clearly over time until he's solid more often than not.
- As it becomes increasingly clear, even to Shin, that these specific memories Sena has chosen to share are a record of him coming to realize his feelings for Shin, Sena is eventually able to take Shin's hands and hold them without disappearing, tapping not needed. He interrupts Suzuna and Monta to try to finish off the confession himself: Shin didn't need to be scared when Sena found out about his feelings, because--
- Absolutely overwhelmed by everything about the last 36 hours and having no ability to process any of it in words ANYMORE but moved by the SPIRIT OF COMMUNICATION regardless, Shin gambles on the pretty sure bet that he and Sena are in-sync about this, and kisses him.
- It connects. (And connects, and connects...) Sena's pendant starts to glow brighter and brighter until he's totally enveloped, and--
- Switch back to Sena's POV! He wakes up on the street in front of the truck again, scraped up but otherwise totally unharmed. So are the little girl, who he successfully pushed out of the way, and the driver of the car, who stopped in time regardless. Shinigami-san is also there, and Sena tells It to leave the driver alone because It owes him one, and Shinigami-san congratulates him and tells him that hey hey that was the plan along!! (The onlookers assume that he's confused from the near-accident when he starts talking to thin air.)
- Sena waves off all the concerned onlookers and runs off to find somewhere to sit where he's not going to be gawked at so he can text literally everyone he knows. By the time he finds a bench, he's already gotten HOLY SHIT WE JUST TIME-TRAVELED ARE YOU OKAY??? texts from Monta and Suzuna, which he responds to and incites a flood of emoji-based cheering. Everyone else he texts is politely puzzled by his "are you okay???" message, including Mamori and his parents to his intense relief, except--
- He gets a call from Sakuraba, who sounds very confused as he tells him that Shin wants to talk to him. Sena reassures Shin that he's okay, and tells him to meet him at the park that they left off at, and also that he loves him because he can't restrain himself after not getting to say it before. Shin says it back, and Sakuraba therefore sounds both confused AND delighted when he gets the phone back from Shin to say goodbye.
- Sena texts Suzuna and Monta to meet him at the same place, since it's about halfway between Enma and Oujou, and starts running.
- Shin and Sena, being… Shin and Sena, get there before the other two, and there's so many tears and so much hugging and so many I Love Yous and also some apologies. Monta and Suzuna eventually arrive and there's another round of tears and hugging and I Love Yous, and when everyone is less punchdrunk off of trauma and catharsis, they sit down and figure out that it's only the people that actually saw Sena as a ghost that remember the other timeline.
- With the group understandably not ready to be separated under the circumstances, but also with Sena desperately wanting to see his parents, Mamori and Riku, he comes up with a thin excuse for an impromptu dinner party at his parents' place later in the day (celebrating passing a tough test? beat the Cupids in a football game? national pancake day?? doesn't matter!!!), clears it with them, and invites Mamori+Hiruma and Riku over as well. (Shin lets Sena arrange takeout for everyone on his dime so that Sena's parents won't have to cook for an unplanned dinner party.)
- Fic ends with the group heading toward Sena's parents' house, Shin and Sena holding hands, with Sena feeling content and confident in his relationships as his phone continuously blows up with people responding to his check-in text, and Shin admitting that he's feeling pretty hopeful about the idea of getting to form connections with Sena's family all over again.
END. Thanks for indulging my "I'm too lazy to write this but NOT too lazy to bulletpoint each plot detail beat-by-beat" post, haha!
19 notes · View notes
quillyfied · 3 years
Text
Omenstuck Act 2 Bonus Content
Hello! Here’s just some extra bonus content from the pretty weighty upd8 I posted to my fanfic Omenstuck today (for Chapter 4: Act 2 specifically). A lot of background info went into it that I’m not going to get much occasion to use, so I’m doing what any self-respecting writer would do and dumping it here instead. Obviously has huge spoilers for Omenstuck so if you haven’t read the upd8s from today, don’t look. Hope the readmore holds on mobile, and there are some images below, too. Enjoy!
So for starters, I’m going to post the little cheat sheet that I had on hand for remembering all the characters’ assigned blood colors, Trollian handles, god tier titles, and quadrants (both filled and experimented with):
Tumblr media
In order, here’s what we’ve got:
Crowley. Blood: burgundy. UN: anthomanicCaduceus. GT: Rogue of Life. Quadrants: Aziraphale (matesprit), Eric (auspistice, unwitting) and Hastur (other leaf of auspisticism quadrant, unwitting). Lusus: snake
Eric. Blood: brown. UN: coneyCloning. GT: Heir of Time. Quadrants: Auspistice to Crowley and Hastur (unwitting); Uriel (auspistice between arguing Erics, short-lived). Lusus: rabbit
Beelzebub. Blood: yellow. UN: carrionTyrant. GT: Prince of Rage. Quadrants: Dagon (moirail), Gabriel (kismesis). Lusus: giant fly
Ligur. Blood: lime/red (vacillating glitch). UN: guanineChameleon. GT: Sylph of Space. Quadrants: Hastur (moirail), Michael (kismesis). Lusus: chameleon
Hastur. Blood: olive. UN: amphibiousGrunt. GT: Knight of Breath. Quadrants: Ligur (moirail), Eric (auspistice, unwitting) and Crowley (other leaf of auspisticism quadrant, unwitting). Lusus: frog
Dagon. Blood: jade. UN: aquaticTaskmaster. GT: Witch of Mind. Quadrants: Beelzebub (moirail), Sandalphon (matesprit, short-lived), Metatron (kismesis, one-sided crush). Lusus: lungfish
Aziraphale. Blood: teal. UN: aetherialAntiquarian. GT: Thief of Doom. Quadrants: Crowley (matesprit), Michael (auspistice, coercing) and Sandalphon (other leaf of auspisticism quadrant, coercing). Lusus: ??? (dragon, owl?)
Michael. Blood: cerulean. UN: tenebrousAgent. GT: Seer of Void. Quadrants: Uriel (moirail), Aziraphale (one leaf of auspisticism quadrant, coerced) and Sandalphon (other leaf of auspisticism quadrant, co-conspirator), Ligur (kismesis). Lusus: ??? (tbh spider would still fit here)
Sandalphon. Blood: indigo. UN: toughenedCrusader. GT: Page of Blood. Quadrants: Michael (auspistice, co-conspirator) and Aziraphale (other leaf of auspisticism quadrant, coerced), Gabriel (moirail), Dagon (matesprit, short-lived). Lusus: ??? (Possibly musclebeast)
Uriel. Blood: purple. UN: celestialAureate. GT: Maid of Heart. Quadrants: Michael (moirail), Eric (mediated between two of his arguing selves, short-lived). Lusus: ??? (sea-goat still viable)
Gabriel. Blood: violet. UN: gregariousArchangel. GT: Bard of Hope. Quadrants: Sandalphon (moirail), Beelzebub (kismesis). Lusus: ??? (seahorse or shark)
Metatron. Blood: fuchsia. UN: communicantGodhead. GT: Mage of Light. Quadrants: object of one-sided pitch crush from Dagon. Lusus: Horrorterror from Beyond (Gl’bgol’yb, probably)
Here’s the shipping chart of what this madness looked like:
Tumblr media
Solid lines for established or longer-lasting relationships, dotted lines for either crushes or experiments that didn’t pan out. Crowley, Eric, and Hastur’s auspisticism is dotted because it’s not a consciously-thought out relationship that’s actually been defined so much as a convenient social contract that keeps Hastur from killing Crowley by distracting him with a multitude of Erics, which makes it a pretty functional auspisticism, actually.
Some notes:
- If you’re thinking that the blood colors and god tier titles don’t exactly fit, you’re right, but there’s a reason, and we’ll get to it in future chapters of Omenstuck. Maybe one day I’ll do the thing proper and give them all more accurate classpects and blood colors, but I think I did pretty well, given everything.
- This means that it was Hastur and Ligur’s jobs, as the Knight and Space players, to breed the Genesis Frog, which creates each new universe, and that tickles me to the bone.
- Ligur’s whole situation is a nod to both Good Omens and to Homestuck; for a bit I entertained making Crowley the hemo-mutant that Karkat is, but thought he fit best lower on the totem pole (on his belly he shall crawl and all that). Canonically, Karkat’s bright red human-like blood is a mutation off of an old hemospectrum caste, the limebloods, and it tickled me to think of Ligur occupying both the limebloods and the red mutation that spawned from it, as a nod to his color-changing in Good Omens and his affiliation with chameleons. Also, apparently it’s the guanine in their skin that makes chameleons change color, which is what the G in Homestuck pesterchum handles stands for (bc the chats are all supposed to represent DNA strands that make up each Genesis Frog that creates each new universe), so it came together kinda perfectly. If Ligur ever was in a pesterlog, I was going to code it so his lines would alternate colors, but it didn’t pan out that way.
- Was it overly simplistic to cast Hell as the lowbloods and Heaven as the highbloods? Yes. But there are two reasons for this, one of which I can’t say because spoilers, one of which I will freely admit, which is that I got tired and just simplified where I could because I was already putting more effort into backstory that turned out to be less relevant than I thought once I finally got the dang thing written.
- In the bowels of my Instagram there is a doodle of Gabriel with the traditional Bardic codpiece and an expression to match, but I didn’t keep it in canon. It is definitely there in spirit and more loving detail will be paid attention to it if I ever go back and do a proper Homestuck troll AU.
- There was a subplot I discarded when thinking of the quadrant entanglements that involved Dagon hooking up with both Sandalphon and Michael in a redrom way and that being one of the catalysts for the bloodbath at the end, because I adore Dagon/Michael and wanted to go there first but she was already appearing so much, and I remember reading about Dagon/Sandalphon once in a fic I wish I could remember off the top of my head and it was so bizarre I adored it. Ultimately I stuck with Dagon and Sandalphon having a redrom fling, because why not.
- Dagon was also going to have a whole Thing against Metatron that boiled down to her having vestigial seadweller traits and being jealous of an actual seadweller that didn’t do his heritage credit, but Metatron was such a non-entity that it didn’t feel relevant to bring up, with so much already getting crammed into this upd8.
- Gabriel and Eridan have some eerie synergy and that’s a hill I’ll die on.
- Uriel was supposed to have a bigger part, too, delving into how they fit into the whole purpleblood Mirthful Messiahs cult and how they use their paint to emphasize their vitiligo (inspired by their canonical pretty gold face markings), but once again...not enough room, not enough interaction with Crowley or Aziraphale. They were either going to be a huge part of it, or eschew it entirely in favor of worshipping Metatron and possibly Metatron’s eldritch lusus instead, but eh. Roads untraveled. I also didn’t doodle their facepaint while I was doing my concept sketches/brainstorming activities so I just let it be.
- The whole Michael and Sandalphon using a heavily manipulative auspisticism to blackmail and control Aziraphale was a concept I had from the beginning, but when I wrote the scene, it actually shook me up a lot; Auspisticism is one of the platonic and weirder quadrants in Homestuck, but it didn’t hit me until I had written it how that particular dynamic could be exploited and turned into something kinda borderline abusive, if not outright abusive (I’m trying to be more careful in how I apply the word so I don’t know for sure if what I wrote counts as fully abusive, or just a super bad time). To be honest, in all the Homestuck fics that ever were, I don’t think I ever read a single one that described what I did in this fic (and RAPE MENTION TW a part of me that is forever struck by my friend’s fic that described a brutal pale rape, as in forcing the usual nonsexual markers of the pale quadrant on an unwilling victim, was worried that I had written ashen rape, which was NOT where I wanted to go; after worrying about it to friends and sleeping on it, I don’t think I quite went there, but the implication that it COULD happen is going to haunt me for a while).
- I did want to get more detailed with a lot of things, like Crowley and Aziraphale’s influencing and talking with humans, and how it was affecting things like their vocabulary and how they saw the world, but it was just too much to tackle in any great detail.
- the whole thing where Crowley uses his god tier powers to steal Life energy from his fellow stranded trolls and makes plants that could potentially feed them one day? Totally unexpected. I did a LOT of refreshing myself on the classes and aspects of god tiers when I was doing the groundwork for this part of the fic, but it didn’t strike me that that was a thing Crowley could do until I was already writing it. And maybe Aziraphale should’ve been a little more horrified by it, but Crowley’s right, they ARE immortal now. Also the whole “taking Life energy and redistributing it among allies” thing probably wasn’t meant to be interpreted as “puts the other trolls in the Mood for quadrant hookups” but it was too hilarious a coincidence to ignore. Life needs things to live, as a wise internet dnd player once said, and when you’re the last of your species, you’ve gotta do what you can to propagate (even if it’s functionally impossible to restore your species, since there’s no Mother Grub to donate slurry to and no ectobiological lab to make ectobabies from. God loves a trier). Does that make all the hookups dubious consent, since weird Life magic was involved? I don’t think so, I think it just accelerated what was already present, but I’ll leave that to y’all to judge.
- Crowley was actually supposed to be the one to die. It said so in my notes. It was a whole Thing, Crowley getting speared or shot or whatever and looking at Aziraphale like “ha I got this one better luck next time”. But then I made Aziraphale a Thief of Doom, which was originally a joke to myself about how he hoards books (Thief players are hoarders and Doom can represent rules or systems), and then he got all contemplative and hit ME back with “no, no, sister, you made me a Thief of Doom, I’m gonna steal this death meant for Crowley and keep it all to myself, and there’s nothing you can do about it.” And he was RIGHT. I can’t believe I’ve killed Aziraphale THREE TIMES now. And I completely forgot about how god tier players are also immortal from being killed unless the death is Heroic or Just until, again Aziraphale reminded me by pushing Crowley out of the way--therefore making his death to sacrifice himself for his friend and beloved Heroic. I played myself in every possible way. Checkmate, brain. (As for what that means in future chapters, stick around, it’s only gonna get weirder, but Homestucks who are puzzled at the inclusion of Dream Shards rather than Dream Bubbles are encouraged to draw some conclusions of their own.)
I think that’s all I wanted to talk about, so have a doodle of Michael with her Seer hood drawn for funsies.
Tumblr media
See y’all later! Feel free to send me an ask or a comment or whatever if you have any questions or just wanna talk about this madness I’m creating!
8 notes · View notes
uglypastels · 4 years
Text
To the Beat - Headcanons
(a/n) right, so here are just some headcanons/vague ideas of how i imagined the band play their songs. Either at the specific concert or in general in the future once they had grown more comfortable on stage and a bigger fanbase etc.
Also, I have no idea if this makes sense but I had all these ideas in my head that i needed to get out and on to “paper”, so i thought then why not just share it :) 
Read part 1 here <---> part 2 here
If you want any other hc about the band :) just send an ask. cause this might be my new favorite au and i would love to do some further world building lmao.
Tumblr media
The Band setlist
headcanons below cut
MR BRIGHTSIDE (The Killers)
So, Harrison starts playing on the guitar, and then the drums follow after a few beats just like in the original. Harrison sings the first verse, but Harry comes in with the harmonies in the lines like “gotta gotta be down” and “How did I end up like this?” 
Then I feel like there could be more harmonies in the pre-chorus, but the chorus itself is sung by Haz, with Tom and Harry doing like matching back up vocals (ooohs and stuff like that). 
The second verse is sung by Harry, with harmonies done by Haz. Then at the line with the pre-echo of “(it was only a kiss) It was only a kiss” Tom is the one to say it. - 
(sidenote, i feel, like if they performed it more, he would get more confidence into and would start improvising shit that would totally not match the song and harry would either go along with it or just ignore him. Either way, funny shit.) 
Harry would sing most of the second pre-chorus, but the other two would join him in the last line “and taking control”. Then Harrison sings the final chorus. And Tom would do the echoes the song ends on (the repeated “I never”s) 
THE INVISIBLE MAN (Queen)
Harrison sings most of it, but like, really close to the microphone, so he doesn’t have to sing it very loudly. 
You just know Harry is having the time of his life during this song with the bass. Especially after the intro and there is that part of just bass and drums. Tom and Harry love it. 
(also Tom does the adlibs through the verses and he shouts something randoms, but not through the mic, just into the void lol we love our adlib king) 
Then during the chorus, Tom and Harry whisper-sing “I’m the invisible man” 
So the bridge is a bit more aggressive so Harry would sing that, headbanging like crazy when given the time. 
The guitar solo… honestly, I don’t know what to say about that without becoming a puddle. K byeee. 
Basically they would go all out and be super extra, making Freddie Mercuy proud. 
YOU OUGHTA KNOW (Alanis Morissette) 
So, this is Tom’s song. It starts off with a snare drum and he sings softly, but angry just like Alanis. And the rhythm just fits considering he would also have to drum. Then the second part of the verse, he gets louder. 
Haz and Harry do the pre-chorus in harmonies, with Tom shouting out the No in “To be open wide, no” Then the last two lines are for Harry (“ ‘til you died, until you died, but you’re still alive!”) and he shouts them out to transition into the chorus which he also sings. 
Then then the second verse is also sung by Tom. It basically follows the same formula as the first part. 
After the second chorus, there is that kind of echo which Haz sings. The bridge is Tom’s part again. Harry sings the last two choruses again but then the last “you, you, you oughta know” is sung much softer for the DRAMA. 
ARE YOU GONNA BE MY GIRL (Jet)
The cough. You know that one of them would do the cough. But never at the right moment though. 
This is another song that Harry loves to perform because its super bass… based, so he grabs at at the attention and gets super extra at the intro. Tom would just be vibing at the beat really. Then the guitar riff comes in and everyone just *swoons* and Harry comes in with the WhOO!
Harrison also goes all out, playing to the audience, but then for every line he would lean into the microphone, really close and then jump off it to the back, just to come back in at the next line. I don’t know how to describe but.. That. And he would change his tone where it fits so in the second line of “say you look so fine, that I really wanna make you mine” he would end it all husky probably. And he would most definitely try to spot someone hot in the crowd and sing the next line to them with a wink (Now you don't need the money/When you look like that, do ya honey?) and his voice would go all deep and oof yeah. Just sex all around for him, really.
Harry would finish off the pre-chorus and shout his way through the chorus like the energetic weirdo that he is (how he still has a voice at the end of it all is large mystery). 
Then the drum stops for Tom to catch a moment, not that he really needs it, and he says the “Are you gonna be my girl?” and then I die basically. 
And then after the second chorus, the guitar starts and Tom stands up to clap, letting the audience to follow. And (hopefully) they continue with it through the rest of the song.  
BREAK MY HEART (Dua Lipa, cover version of HEY LIFE)
The song would either start with a bass actually or a guitar that is a bit higher than the one in the playlist i set. They wouldn’t play it as metal-y. Harrison sings, holding on to that mic Harry is living his life with the bass. 
Then they all sing the first half of the pre-chorus in harmonies and it sounds amazing. The other half is for Harrison. 
The first few lines of the chorus “I would've stayed at home/'Cause I was doin' better alone/But when you said, "Hello"/I know that was the end of it all” is like an acapella monotone singing… I don’t know music terms okay, deal it with <3 but then they repeat it with the instruments and harmonies. 
It all kind of repeats itself in the same formula, I think. Then there’s a bit of a solo at the end of the second??? chorus so that would go to Harrison. And the bridge they’d sing together again. And there are some like background lines?? That would probably be Harry :) why did I make him the loud chaotic one?? I have no idea but try and tell me that I’m wrong. He’d go through like 6 bottles of water cause ya boy’s gotta STAY HYDRATED
MISS YOU (The Rolling Stones) 
Right, so like in the fic, audience participation in the best way possible. They teach the crowd what to sing and how to sing it. So the ooohs and yadda yadda at the intro and through the rest of the song.  It has a fucking great beat too so everyone is just VIBING to it and it’s a party. Harrison is doing his best with his cursive™ singing lol. No one really understands what he’s saying but we’re here for it. Then Harry signs towards the crowd to sing and its loud and amazing and the connection!! 
Then later on tom and harry to the back up vocals again and it just sounds like two little angels. 
There is a part where it’s kind of slam poetry lol, about walking in central park or something (idk the song that well oops) anyway, that part is Harry’s. 
The saxophone solos are obviously changed into a guitar solo, or a bass, or drum, whichever guy is quicker each show. Then the crowd joins in again cause they can’t help it and that little ooooh/aaaah will be stuck in everyones head for the rest of the week (just like it happened to me after i went to the Rolling Stones concert, people were still singing it in the train on the way home and that is exactly the vibe we are going for here) 
WILDFLOWER (5 Seconds of Summer)
So it’s been established that these boys do nothing but exude sex through their entire performance and this song is no exception. They start of very sweet with the wild-wildflower but from their, straight into the sin bin. Harrison is singing
 (ngl i did base him a lot on Luke Hemmings in this fic so I just had to put in a 5SOS song- even though calum sings it but do not ruin this for me OKAY) 
In the meantime, Tom is clapping along, getting the crowd to do it, though he has to make sure the people actually stay in rhythm so it doesn’t fuck up the song. Then in the pre-chorus its Tom and Harry as back-up, still for Harrison to take the lead. Until the last sentence where its Harry coming in with the “I know where tonight is going!” 
But here’s the thing. The song goes “You're the only one who makes me- Every time we-” and then there’s the added “Tell you what I like” which Tom is SUPPOSED to sing, but as we have established, he’s a little shit and he loves to mess around, so he would shout out weird stuff out when he got the chance, but if he couldn’t think of it, then he’d at least take it to the stage to finish Haz’ sentence. So when he sings “You’re the only one who makes me-” Tom nicely finished is it and shouts “HARD” 
Also I think Harry would be bopping around with his bass to the drum, cause how can you not.  
SEVEN NATION ARMY (The White Stripes)
Right so here is Harrison, aka our cursive singing king, thriving. The first part of the song doesn’t even use guitar so he’s just at the microphone chilling, most definitely brushing his fingers through his hair, maybe rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. Does he need to do it? No, but who minds it? Exactly, nobody. 
But then when the guitar does finally start he is oFFFFF. Putting so much into it. 
Tom also most definitely goes far and beyond drumming to this. it’s a simple beat but he just drums with all his body. At the begining of every verse, where its just the bass drum, you can see him step on that fucking pedal. 
and then he adds on the other drum (idk terms, let me be) but he moves his head to each beat and he hits it fucking hard okay, so MUSCLE uhum uhum, yeah. 
And there’s another classic bassline in here so Harry is thriving like any time he gets to shine <3 
CALIFORNICATION (Red Hot Chili Peppers)
So this was a slower song to kind of level all the songs that had been super energetic. 
It’s simply the moment where all of them can relax a bit. maybe some of the audience will turn on their flashlights. Not that the song really needs that, but its fun, so why not. 
Harrison is at it again with the cursive, tho not as much here. He also plays around at the end of the verses, lengthening the notes and stuff. idk, making it fancy
They put in more distinct harmonies at the chorus “Dream of Californication” 
then there are the back up Ooooh’s in the other verses. love those. 
they might cut the song short, stopping before the last verse, just where its the soft guitar plating and they faded out and its time for another break :)
CHELSEA DAGGER (The Fratellis)
So they don’t actually play this song. It was something that came accidentally. They probably don’t even know the name of the song. But its just one of those things that everyone kinda knows. So during a break one of the 3 is fucking around on their instrument and the other two join in, still clueless, and suddenly its the crowd that does the dudududud’s and there ya go, Chelsea Dagger. Just a little quickie to get everyone pumped up again after a slower song. 
SEX ON FIRE (Kings of Leon)
Harrison’s cursive singing strikes again, but at this point we’re all living for it. It’s also the song where he’s a bit louder and gets up there together with Harry’s voice lol.
Then Tom sings the chorus, since this is all my self indulgence and I want him to sing the words “your sex is on fire” over and over again. sue me. 
But like, he tenses up when he sings, getting it in that right emotional range, and he’s still drumming and it’s all very very hot. 
maybe the light technicians set the lights on red or orange <3 
MISS ALISSA (Eagles of Death Metal) 
Here’s my idea: they all had a veto on picking one song each for the set list and the rest had to be voted on together 
(Harrison’s would be ---- and Tom’s would be You Oughta Know, cause he angsty like that sometimes). 
Harry picked this song simply because its fucking fast and it was a struggle for the other two lol. It’s basically just drums and guitar so Harry is singing and clapping, with his bass on his back, while tom is basically dying from this repeated beat, playing it nonstop for 3 minutes straight while his fucking brother is jumping around on stage.
 And the ‘you aint dancing’ at the end is definitely directed at Tom.
To which Tom would nicely respond with flipping his brother off :) 
RUBY (Kaiser Chief) 
My sweet baby angels they start with the tadata’s together 
And Harry sings the verse and the chorus, with Tom and Haz doing the back up vocals. 
Cause he sings the most of this song, he sometimes slacks with the bass, just letting it go all together, to hold on to the mic (or taking it with him and dancing around the stage during the chorus) 
and during the bridge he could very well bend down to sing to the audience directly 
so the people *swoon* once again 
and he would be deep in eye contact with someone for that bridge, just for the chorus to start again and he’d jump up and be all bouncy again. we love variety
in short, this concert would not be good for my heart 
STAR GIRL (McFly)
The only real reason why the chose this song is cause they’re 12 year old boys and the lines of the second verse made them laugh (there’s nothing on Earth that can save us, when i fell in love with Uranus) and i mean, who can blame them. But its also just a really fun song that the crowd can easily join into as well - gotta love the whoohoo-oooo’s . 
And speaking of, after the bridge and trumpet/in this case guitar solo, there’s a few counts of silence. You can bet that the audience misses it by like half a beat which the boys enjoy immensely. Sometimes they would even go out of their way to make the pause even longer to mess with people. 
But basically, the do end up loving this song, especially Tom and Harry. they have possibly argued about who sings which part, so they end up just switching through shows (tho Harry gets to do the bridge, since he has the loudest voice<3)
COME TOGETHER (The Beatles)
They specifically chose this song to finish the show off with. 
cause it really brings everyone together. 
they might sing it a bit differently though, maybe more like Aerosmith
(they tried Gary Clark Jr.’s version but they felt like they couldn’t do it as big as he did it)  
they definitely fool the crowd to when to sing Come Together or not, very anticlamactic and all but it won’t make anyone love them any less. 
but once they do sing it, Chilssss 
and they do each a verse, so first Harrison, then Harry, and finally Tom. and they all finish their own verse very dramatic in their own little ways. 
Harrison barely understandable, but very dramatic 
Harry basically screams it out 
and Tom is just SEX™ 
and then they finish the show off with extended solo’s and I cry again 
idk if i should tag people, since no one asked for this, but i’m doing it 
@definitely-not-black-cat​ @artemisiaarm​ @nerdyhockeygirl​ @miraclesoflove​ @justasmisunderstoodasloki​ @thefridgeismybestie​ @m19friend @creative-happenings​ @parker-holland-osterfield​ @fanficparker​ @fanficscuziranout​ @peterparkoure​ @xxtomxo​ @happywolves81​ @spiderrrling​ @captainbuckyy​ @tra-gicx​ @qxeen-of-hearts @varshavisuu​ @kangaroobunny​ @petersunderoos96​  @the-lost-fairy-tale​ @nerd-domland​ @sleepybesson​ @rissa067​ @the-queen-procrastinator​ @scarletteclipze​ @screeching-student-unknown​ @duskholland​ @tomhollanders2013​ @miraclesoflove​ @playinonaloop​ @captainpeggy40​ @queenoflostspirits​ @roses-hxlland​ @hereiamhereigo​ @sunnydays0803​ @averyfosterthoughts​ @moorehollandplz​ @beiroviski​ @you-bleed-just-toknowyouarealive @peterparkerbabyyy @multifandomlover21​ @lmaotshollandd​ @badbitchydecisions​ @tikapollak​ @starkeybabie​ @awesomehritz​ @madzleigh01​ @oh-what a beautiful-parker @taciturnspidey​ @quaksonhehe​ @mountainsforwords​ @harryfobter @peepeeparkerr @viagracex​ @ethereal-beauty-p​ @perspectiveparker​ @slytherin-chaser​ @worldoftom​ @moonysoftt​ @peeterparkr​ @wazzupmrstark​ @saintlavrents​ @peachybloomss​ @blissfulparker​ @spidey-reids-2003​ @fallinfortom​ @chloecreatesfictions​ @londonspidey​ @hollandcreep​ @inlovewithmobtom​​ @hypnotized-so-mesmerized​ 
29 notes · View notes
darkpoisonouslove · 4 years
Note
2, 7, 11, 12, 18, 29, 33 :)
2. Why do you write fanfiction?
Because I love the characters and want to explore what happens with them in different scenarios. It is just interesting to see how the same person can change and be reshaped by the circumstances while keeping their core personality... Or because canon is dumb as hell and wrongs the babies and we can’t have that.
7. What element of writing do you struggle with most?
Right now? With the writing. I am piecing together stories the entire time but the actual writing part is just not happening. I don’t know what exactly happened. It might be lockdown getting to me and the fact that it is confusing my emotions which definitely makes writing much more unclear. But I also lack concentration lately and I haven’t been able to listen to music. Lately I do everything with a TV show playing in the background. It fries my brain to have my focus torn between two things 100% of the time but quietness or even music is giving me anxiety and I don’t know how to fix that. I feel like that is a big part of the problem because with an episode playing in the background, I can’t exactly immerse myself in the writing. It’s fun because I have never been in a situation like that before and I don’t know what to do.
11. Who or what do you find yourself writing about most?
Lately I am mostly writing about magic. I just like coming up with cool magical lore and creatures and plot to fit those in. I can’t exactly focus on characters all that much (which is where the confused emotions come in). It’s okay right now because I have a lot of work on the rewrites I am doing which are full of magical and plot stuff to figure out but I hope that once finals are over, this issue will settle a little bit.
12. Tell us about a WIP you’re excited about.
I already talked about my most prominent WIPs and the ones I have been paying attention to recently.
Tbh I have been looking at the Domme AU these last few days and I am still so excited about that. I can’t say that I have actually come up... with new stuff. Wait, I actually did. I was looking at chapter 4 - the damn monster - and made some mental notes on what I want to include in chapter 5. I thought I had that figured out but I guess there is more to think about both the structural components of that chapter and PoVs to include. I realized that I haven’t done a great job of developing Valtor’s character and that will need more work before I can actually write anything else. I feel like the chapters I already talk all circle around the same vagueness about Valtor’s emotional state without giving any concrete progress and that will need to be fixed. Griffin is relatively developed since she also has a goal outside of their relationship which makes her feel more complete as a character but Valtor is still a work in progress and I need to do some thinking before I know what I am aiming for with him in more concrete terms. It will improve the story and will probably - hopefully - prevent another chapter as mercilessly long as chapter 4.
18. I already answered that here. (Also where I talked about the WIPs.)
29. Have you ever gone outside of your comfort zone for a fic? How did it turn out?
The Griffin x Palladium fic - Return to Need - I wrote on a request was definitely outside of my comfort zone. I couldn’t really imagine what a relationship with them would look like and it was a smut prompt so I just strayed as far away from that as possible while digging more into the emotional side and that worked out pretty well. I am actually perfectly happy with what came out of that and pleased with myself for actually rising to the challenge.
There were also two other fics I wrote as requests that were based on songs.
The first one was a Valcy fic - Old As Ice  -  that made me slightly uncomfortable because I hate the way Icy drools over Valtor on the show and I had to think a little about how to go around that. I am more than happy with the result, however, as I pulled out some amazing imagery and creative metaphors and I love the way it all turned out. It is probably one of my best things even if it is short and doesn’t have a plot. It is more of a character and relationship study.
The other one is a Driven fic - Purple Will Be the Color of Your Death - that was based on the song Bang by Armchair Cynics. That one could (and probably should) have been taken in a sexual way but since murder also worked, I decided to do that. I wasn’t comfortable writing smut about Riven and Darcy so I thought “Let’s have the murder instead”. It got pretty dark (especially considering how short it is) but I really like it because I have used some cool imagery again and it dug a little in the Darcy and Riven relationship as it was portrayed on the show even though I feel like there was a lot more to it than they thought okay to show. It is definitely not an accurate portrayal of their relationship, or at least not one that feels accurate to me but it was still pretty interesting to write.
33. Is there anything you wish your audience knew about your writing or writing process?
I can’t think of anything in particular right now. Maybe because I don’t know what I am doing in my writing process atm. It feels like it is under construction and that is both scary and annoying because it makes it hard to write rn. I am trying to push through but I am just too exhausted to force myself some days even though I would love to actually work on my ideas because I am super excited about them.
Tbh - and I am not saying this to guilt anyone - I would love to hear more from my audience about my writing. I got to 300 followers and I have no idea why the bigger part of these people follow me. I don’t want to turn this into whining about commenting because that is not what it is. It just feels a little weird to have that kind of following yet mostly scream in a void is all I’m saying. The interaction just feels a little slow sometimes. Again, not to make anyone feel shitty. This is just how I feel and I know that I am not the easiest person to interact with because if I am exhausted, I may take some a significant amount of time to respond.
Send me Fanfic Writer questions
9 notes · View notes
anistarrose · 4 years
Text
Fear The Reaper A Lot, Actually (TAZ Balance AU)
AO3
Summary: In the aftermath of the catastrophe at the Miller Lab, Kravitz strikes a deal with his bounties. Their crimes against death will be forgiven if they can bring in two specific liches for arrest…
But unfortunately, those liches are named Lup and Barry J. Bluejeans.
Characters: Kravitz, Taako, Barry Bluejeans, Angus McDonald, Magnus Burnsides, Merle Highchurch, Noelle | No-3113, The Raven Queen, misc. BoB cameos
Relationships: Taakitz, Angus McDonald & Taako, Barry Bluejeans & Kravitz
I posted the second of three scenes in this chapter on Tumblr in January, not really expecting to continue it at the time, but it was well-received there, and I realized that I actually have a lot more ideas for this AU than I expected! This fic has been in the works for months, and I’m simultaneously so excited, nervous, and relieved to get it out of my mind and into the world.
That said, there is one other person who’s read this fic before, and that’s @fexiled! They’ve been an awesome (and patient) beta reader, and I’m incredibly grateful to them for all their advice, typo-catching, and encouragement!
***
Kravitz couldn’t even begin to fathom what kind of sinister agenda would possibly bring a lich to a train station, but he’d intercepted Barry J. Bluejeans in stranger places than Rockport. If he was after any other bounty, he’d be worried about the nearby masses of civilians on holiday getting caught in the crossfire, or worse, being used as hostages — but with Barry, he never knew what to worry about.
Barry, for his part, didn’t seem fazed by the prospect of facing down the Grim Reaper in a transportation hub staffed entirely by identical clones of Tom Bodett, and he addressed Kravitz calmly and amiably:
“Ah, there you are. Hope you didn’t have a ticket for the Rockport Limited, ‘cause it left a couple minutes ago.”
“I have a magical sapphire scythe that lets me teleport anywhere on the Material or Astral Planes,” Kravitz replied. “Why would I need train tickets?”
Barry chuckled — nervously? Awkwardly? Without a visible face beneath his hood, he was difficult to read. “I dunno, leisure? In case I got on a train and you wanted to follow me, but legally?”
Kravitz narrowed his eyes. Barry was normally talkative for a lich, but today, he seemed especially affable… not to mention unsurprised by Kravitz’s appearance. “Were you expecting me to follow you here?”
“You’ve followed me stranger places,” Barry reminded him. “Graveyards for dragons, necromancy conventions, the actual moon that isn’t just a secret society’s headquarters… point is, I kinda figured the ticket counter at a train station wouldn’t stop you.”
Kravitz adjusted his grip on his scythe, channelling a spark of the Raven Queen’s power to scan the area for magical traps. There were none.
“I don’t have any tricks this time,” Barry promised him, his hooded void of a face still frustratingly impossible to read. “No sabotage, no moon ogres. I just want to talk.”
A pigeon landed on the ground between them, pecking at a dropped sandwich without any acknowledgement of the two undead entities that could each obliterate it in a second.
“Let’s say I humor you, in the interest of not catching an innocent bird in the crossfire,” Kravitz replied. “What would you want to talk about?”
“I’m realizing this isn’t gonna sound that sincere, but… an apology. And a warning.”
“What world do you come from, where it’s appropriate to follow an apology with a threat? Are you going to, I don’t know, imprison my soul if I don’t forgive you?”
“The world I come from has nothing to do with it.” The lights beneath Barry’s hood flickered erratically, but he kept his composure. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for wasting so much of your time. You could be out there stopping evil necromancers, but I’ve been leading you on a wild goose chase for a decade, and I’m genuinely sorry about that. I’m sorry that I can’t do the things I need to do or save the things I need to save without being undead, and making what I can only assume is a gigantic bureaucratic mess for the Astral Plane.”
Kravitz sighed. “Are you hinting that I should just give up forever on chasing you, because you’re not evil? Do you really expect me to believe that, coming from a lich?”
“Well, I wasn’t counting on it, but that would be nice,” Barry admitted. “The thing is, whether you believe me isn’t going to matter a whole lot in… let’s see, at the rate we’re going, I doubt it’ll take much more than a year. You’re gonna have a bigger problem on your hands — and if you want even a slim chance of surviving it, you and your goddess and every plane in this system will need to be prepared.”
Kravitz eyed a clock on the station wall. “Keep making threats like that, and you’ll have thirty seconds to explain yourself before I end this conversation.”
Barry held up his hands. “Wait, wait, let me clarify — that wasn’t me threatening you! That’s me knowing what’s coming, and not wanting to see it obliterate this entire universe! I — I see, now, how that could get misinterpreted — but I promise, I’m not making this up just to mess with you! You have the ability to warn the Astral Plane, to warn the Raven Queen and by extension all the gods in the Celestial Plane, so that they can prepare for this and stand a fighting chance —”
“Excuse me, gentlemen? Is there anything I can help you with?”
A Tom Bodett approached them, completely unfazed by the lich and the reaper staring each other down of the Rockport Limited boarding platform, and Kravitz couldn’t help but wonder how frequently the humble employees of the train station had to deal with the undead making a scene.
“Stay back, mortal!” he shouted, twirling his scythe and jumping between the Barry and the poor, almost certainly underpaid Tom. “This is an arrest of one of the most dangerous death criminals in Faerun —”
But Barry had already vanished into thin air, leaving behind only the faintest wisp of red smoke, and Kravitz held back a curse.
This always happened one way or another, every damn time Kravitz had encountered Barry in the past decade. Barry had been right about one thing — he’d wasted an astronomical amount of Kravitz’s time over the years.
“Well, I guess that takes care of that,” Tom declared brightly, as if he caused distractions that allowed ultrapowerful death criminals to escape justice every day. “He was making quite a scene — any idea what his deal was?”
Kravitz shook his head. “Just a lich playing mind games. As liches are wont to do, you know.”
At least, I hope that’s all Barry is, he thought with a shiver. But if he wants to give me a reason to believe him, then… well, he can do it from a cell in the Eternal Stockade.
***
“Hey, Reaper Man! I’ve got an idea for you!” Taako called out. Something about the gleam in his eye piqued Kravitz’s curiosity, even though hearing out ideas from death criminals was an objectively unwise idea.
“Do tell, then,” Kravitz replied, and the mischievous smile on Taako’s face expanded into a toothy grin.
“You hunt down a lot of different bounties, right? And Lucas and Maureen and Noelle, they can’t possibly be the worst criminals on your naughty list, can they?”
“Naughty list? What is he, Santa?” Magnus snickered. “I guess it is technically still Candlenights…”
“Today has been a Day with a capital D,” Kravitz warned Taako, “and I’m not in the mood to hear an argument about why I should let them go because morality is relative —”
“Cool your collarbones, Skeletor, I may have come here to get the Philosopher’s Stone, but I’m no philosopher. I was just thinking: what if we tracked down one of your bigger bounties for you? You let some harmless death criminals go, we bring you a really evil one in return, you collect a big old bounty and also get to see my charming face again! Doesn’t that deal sound like a winner?”
“In practice, it just sounds like a good way to get double-crossed — but in theory, it would be quite a bargain, I’ll grant you that.” Kravitz mentally ran through his list of bounties, almost immediately focusing on one particular lich that had vexed him for years. “And I have to admit, I’d love nothing more than seeing you three take a crack at bringing in Barry J. Bluejeans —”
The second Barry’s name was uttered, Taako let out a wheezy laugh like a congested elephant, and Magnus and Merle weren’t far behind, guffawing so heartily that they fogged up the insides of their null suit helmets.
“I laughed at that name once just like you, but when you’ve been hunting him for years to no avail, it won’t seem so funny anymore!” Kravitz warned them. “He’s easily in the top five most dangerous liches in Faerun, not to mention the number one most elusive!”
“Barry’s a LICH?!” Magnus chortled, as Merle doubled over clutching his stomach and Taako rolled around on the floor in hysterics.
“All that time in Phandalin, we were at the mercy of an evil undead overlord and we didn’t even know it!” Taako cackled, evidently not too troubled by the revelation. “Fuck, we’re lucky to even be alive!”
That caught Kravitz off guard. “Wait, you’ve met Barry Bluejeans?”
“And lived to tell the tale!” Merle boasted. “We could totally do it again, by the way!”
“Hang on, Merle,” Noelle interrupted. “Was this what you meant earlier? When you said you were friends with a couple of liches?”
Merle blinked. “When did I say that?”
“Never mind.” Noelle sighed, then turned to Kravitz. “There’s gotta be some mistake. Some kinda identity confusion. The Bluejeans I met in Phandalin, he — he was a good man. He tried to keep us hidden while he fought off that awful dwarf, that dwarf that was setting everything on fire as far as the eye could see. Mister Bluejeans was so reassuring, and so brave — if anything, I’d call him a hero, not some horrible undead monster.”
“That doesn’t really sound like our Barry,” Merle said. “He was kind of an ass. Told me to stab myself with a rusty fork.”
As his bounties squabbled among themselves over the true nature of Barry Bluejeans, Kravitz took the opportunity to pray to the Raven Queen.
Your Majesty, if these criminals think they can really track down such a dangerous lich… would taking their offer be the right choice? Or am I about to be scammed?
The reply was immediate, as if the Raven Queen had already been observing the Miller Lab intently and contemplating the situation for herself. I cannot make this decision for you, Kravitz. But I trust your judgement.
Thank you, milady. Kravitz collected himself, and announced his terms.
“I’ll tell you what. One lich isn’t quite enough to sell me on this deal… but two liches would be, especially if the latter of the two hasn’t been detected in over a decade. If you bring me the both of them in the next two months, everyone involved in this whole Miller debacle goes free — but if you fail, I come to collect all your souls. You still up for this deal?”
Magnus looked like he wants to ask for clarification, but before he could get a word out, Taako casually declared:
“Sure, dude, we’re up for it. Who’s the second lich, other than Barry?”
“Her name is Lup, and she was last sensed in the general vicinity of Wave Echo Cave ten years ago,” Kravitz replied with a smile. “That’s all I know about her, so that’s all the information you get, too. Good luck!”
***
“You’ve got two months to capture a couple of liches? And if you don’t, the Grim Reaper will take your souls?!”
“Shh, not so loud!” Magnus hissed, pressing a finger to Angus’s mouth. “Do you want everyone on the moon to hear?”
Angus glanced around the cafeteria. Exempting him and the three Reclaimers, it was completely empty aside from a few discarded, tattered Candlenights decorations. “Have you at least told the Director about this?”
Magnus smiled sheepishly. “Uh, it never seemed like the right time to bring it up.”
“Carey knew because she was there, but she didn’t seem too keen on being the one to break the news,” Taako elaborated. “Can’t say I blame her.”
Angus sighed. “And your new robot friend, Noelle. Is her soul a part of this bargain, too?”
Magnus nodded. “Yeah. We promised her we’d take care of it, so she’s hanging with the Regulators now —”
“And I bet Lucas Miller isn’t even dead after all, is he?”
“Perceptive as ever, Agnes,” Taako confirmed. “Maureen really did die, though. She went back to the Astral Plane.”
Angus took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes, a gesture that made him look far older than ten. “No offense, sirs, but why didn’t just gamble with the Grim Reaper for your souls like normal people? You might’ve actually had a chance at succeeding, that way!”
“Huh,” muttered Magnus. “Good question…”
“Yeah, Taako, why didn’t we just gamble for our souls like normal people?” Merle echoed.
Taako shrugged. “I dunno. I guess I just thought that Kravitz guy sounded pretty okay, like he’d give us a reasonable bargain…”
“Reasonable? He made Magnus chop my damn arm off!”
“Arguing isn't going to get us anywhere, sirs,” Angus spoke up. He hoped he was putting on a calm facade, even though his feet were trembling in his shoes. “Did Kravitz tell you anything about these liches? Names? Locations of recent sightings?”
“Already jotted down all the details for you, my little man,” Taako answered, handing Angus a single sheet of paper. “Didn’t want to forget anything that would help you work your boy detective magic.”
“As if you could ever forget Barry Bluejeans!” Magnus scoffed.
“A lich named Barry Bluejeans? That can’t be right…” Angus took a look at the sheet, titled “Case File” in loopy cursive letters and broken up into two subsections:
Lich #1
Name: Barry Bluejeans
Last seen: The circular glass mistake formerly known as Phandalin, a couple months ago
Weaknesses: Gerblins (unless that was a cunning play so we’d let our guard down), pants that aren’t made of denim, the temptation to party and drink while other people do his job for him
Other information: Used to be Gundren’s bodyguard, and didn’t do a very good job — but who could blame him? That dwarf was an even bigger asshole than he was.
Lich #2
Name: Lup
Last seen: Wave Echo Cave, 10 years ago
Weaknesses: I don’t know, probably holy water or something
Other information: Zilch
Each section was accompanied by an illustration. Barry’s was a cartoonish drawing of a skeleton with jeans, glasses, and a mullet, while Lup’s was simply a series of question marks. At the bottom of the page, Taako had written: Now have at it, Caleb Cleveland Junior!
“…You really have a lot of faith in me, don’t you, sirs?” Angus asked quietly.
Taako shrugged awkwardly, as Magnus replied:
“Well, we know you’re way better at this than us. And you know that’s not exactly a high bar to clear, but you’re obviously our best shot.”
Angus took a deep breath. “Do you remember the reaper’s exact terms? Were there any loopholes we could exploit?”
“Were there?” Magnus mused, tugging at one of his sideburns. “Does anyone remember what he said?”
“Why are you looking at me?” Merle asked, prompting a laugh from Taako.
“Well, in that case…” Angus took a deep breath. “I guess I’ll interview Carey and Noelle to make sure we’re not missing anything, but we shouldn’t count on being able to cheat the deal. Do you think we could book a transport sphere down to Wave Echo Cave tomorrow morning, to go search for leads?”
“Should be no problem,” Taako told him. “Back to our old stomping grounds! I can hardly wait!”
“Reliving our old mistakes! Hooray!” Merle cheered sarcastically, and with that, the Reclaimers all sauntered back to their dorms with easygoing attitudes that Angus could hardly believe.
How are you all so cavalier about dying? he thought. How can you bear to joke about this situation?
And what will I do, if I can’t help you find these liches?
***
Notes:
I really appreciate people commenting on/reblogging this fic, especially for this first chapter! There's absolutely no obligation to do so, of course, but it would mean a lot <3
For what might be the first time in my life, I already have a surplus of chapters written, so the update schedule should remain consistent for at least a month or two (fingers crossed). Since this chapter was on the shorter side and included a scene I posted months ago, I think I’ll post Chapter 2 in a week, then switch to updating every other week from Chapter 3 onwards. (Probably still on Tuesday evenings, plus or minus 24 hours.)
Also, I’d just like to give a shoutout to Angus McDonald for always, always ending up with a bigger role in my fics than I expect when I start writing! But I’m glad he managed to sneak his way into this one, because there’s a bunch more Angus scenes coming up that I can’t imagine this fic without!
89 notes · View notes
stormears · 4 years
Text
Me, Jealous Dirt Clod
Like, my god. There’s this fanartist I found on random accident. There’s this fantasy AU fanfic that they’ve made several fanarts for...a fic LOTS of people have made fanarts of. I haven’t read it, but I know roughly what it’s about, I now follow the author and see fanarts of it on twitter weekly or more. One artist says they’ve drawn over 100 pieces of art for it. It has fan animations, it has its own memes!!! The author is nice and thanks all of her fans. 
That first artist does of the most beautiful “~my aesthetic~” art pieces I’ve ever seen, I adore their style. And today they posted another fanart that was like a movie poster for that fantasy fic. Their best work yet. Gorgeous. I just went like :l *blink blink* :l *blink* :l *blink stare blink* :l 
Feeling jealousy I guess? I would describe my reactions as mostly “feeling dead and numb but refusing to look away.” I suppose this is an improvement because maybe 2 years ago I would have needed to block the author, the artists and anyone I found talking about the fic. Because a fic I thought I’d actually enjoy, one I might wish had been my idea, getting that FUCKING INSANE amount of attention and deserving it would have filled me with such jealous, hateful rage that I’d be thinking about it at night in bed, and at work, and just everywhere. It would affect my mood and my ability to write or my desire to write at all. If I decided to actually read the damn thing and got to personally experience how good it was, I might have actually cried. I did mute the atuhor 
Now, seeing that never-ending FLOOD of great fanart just makes me want to, him, sit down and do nothing. Stare dead into a void. Is that better? Am I ~~bEinG tHe BiGGeR PeRSOn~~ now. 
It ain’t anyone’s fault, it’s just me, being a bitter cunt, and I’m just amazed. I wonder how many other people feel things like this? Or maybe, feel it but pretend they totally don’t and are definitely better and more mature than cunts like me. 
The artists aren’t even the writer’s friends or anything, or commissioned by her!!! That’s the killer too! They just like the fic that much, that they won’t stop making art for it. Literally fans of her work making this content because they love the story and eagerly slurp up every fic update. I mean I guess they’re her friends NOW because they chat back and forth after the fanarts are posted and she’s grateful ofc. 
It’s just incredible man. I’m feeling so...so... :l 
2 notes · View notes